Child with Toy Hand Grenade in Central Park
Child with Toy Hand Grenade in Central Park, N.Y.C. 1962 (1962) is a famous black and white photograph by Diane Arbus.
Significance
The photograph Child with Toy Hand Grenade in Central Park, N.Y.C. 1962, by Diane Arbus, shows a boy, with the left strap of his shorts hanging off his shoulder, tensely holding his long, stringy, thin arms by his side. Clenched in his right hand is a toy replica hand grenade (an Mk 2 "Pineapple"), his left hand is held in a claw-like gesture, and his facial expression is maniacal.
The
According to The Washington Post, Colin does not specifically remember Arbus taking the photo, but that he was likely "imitating a face I'd seen in war movies, which I loved watching at the time." Later, as a teenager, he was angry at Arbus for "making fun of a skinny kid with a sailor suit", though he enjoys the photograph now.[3]
She catches me in a moment of exasperation. It's true, I was exasperated. My parents had divorced and there was a general feeling of loneliness, a sense of being abandoned. I was just exploding. She saw that and it's like...commiseration. She captured the loneliness of everyone. It's all people who want to connect but don't know how to connect. And I think that's how she felt about herself. She felt damaged and she hoped that by wallowing in that feeling, through photography, she could transcend herself.
— Colin Wood[3]
History
The photograph was displayed at the Museum of Modern Art in 1967 under the title Exasperated Boy with Toy Hand Grenade in the New Documents exhibition, a three-person show featuring works by Arbus, Lee Friedlander, and Garry Winogrand.[5][6]
It was published in the 1970
There are seven known original prints by Arbus of the photograph, one of which sold for $408,000 in April 2005 at Christie's in New York.[9] Posthumous prints from the original negative have been made by Neil Selkirk, authorised by Arbus's estate.[10]
Collections
- Jointly held by National Galleries of Scotland, UK[12]
- Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York[13]
See also
References
- ^ Published in Diane Arbus: Revelations, 2003, p. 164, and online in the article "Paris Photo 6: Diane Arbus à la galerie Robert Miller". 2006. Archived from the original on 12 May 2016.
- Allgemeines Künstlerlexikon (World Biographical Dictionary of Artists)., and "Diane Arbus"(condensed English version).
- ^ a b c Segal, David. "Double Exposure: a Moment With Diane Arbus Created a Lasting Impression." Washington Post, May 12, 2005. Retrieved February 3, 2010.
- ^ Hart, Hugh. Post-Developments. For the Subject of Arbus' 'Child with a Toy Hand Grenade,' Life Was Forever Altered at the Click of a Shutter. San Francisco Chronicle, October 19, 2003. Retrieved February 7, 2010.
- ^ Philip Gefter (22 March 2017). "The Exhibit That Transformed Photography". The New Yorker. Retrieved 2 October 2022.
- ^ "New Documents" (PDF) (Press release). Museum of Modern Art. 28 February 1967. Retrieved 2 October 2022.
- ^ Life Library of Photography: The Camera. Time-Life Books. 1970. p. 222.
- ^ Robert B. Stevens (September 1977). "The Diane Arbus Bibliography" (PDF). Exposure. Society for Photographic Education: 15. Retrieved 2 October 2022.
- ^ Pitman, Joanna. "Vintage Photography: the Market for Photographs Has Grown Rapidly Since the 1980s." Apollo, November 2005. Retrieved February 7, 2010.
- ^
- Cascone, Sarah (14 March 2017). "Revisit Diane Arbus's Best-Known Photo on Her 94th Birthday". Artnet News. Retrieved 4 March 2022.
- "Child with Toy Hand Grenade, N.Y.C." www.nga.gov. Retrieved 4 March 2022.
- ^ "Diane Arbus: Child with a Toy Hand Grenade in Central Park, N.Y.C. 1962 1962, printed after 1971" Tate. Accessed 23 November 2016
- National Galleries of Scotland. Accessed 23 November 2016
- National Galleries of Scotland. Accessed 23 November 2016