Diane Arbus' Misfits at LACMA

It feels like the L.A. museums decided to celebrate spring even before it officially started this weekend. The Hammer Museum has "The Last Picture Show", an excellent survey of artists using photography. And the Getty is presenting an ambitious exhibition, "The Photographers of Genius", culled from the Museum's own huge collection. But it's the Diane Arbus exhibition at LACMA and the Minimalism show at MOCA that are in a class by themselves.

Nothing, it seemed, could be added to our already substantial knowledge of Diane Arbus and her work. Her black and white photographs of misfits living on the margins of society became icons of American life in the late 50's and 60's. The images of a Jewish giant with his parents, smiling patients at mental institutions, and an assortment of lonely people frozen in their gloomy living rooms have made an indelible impression on our collective consciousness.

This exhibition, beautifully installed in LACMA's galleries, allows us to see images that have never been shown publicly before. In a rather unusual departure from traditional retrospectives, the designers of this show recreated the artist's studio and library, filled with hundreds of her books, photographs and mementos. I don't know how faithful these recreations are, but I got the thrill of being allowed inside the artist's private world. The exhibition is so huge - more than 200 images - that I couldn't see it all on my first visit. The unique demand her photographs exert on the viewer is so great that halfway through the exhibition I was simply overwhelmed and emotionally drained.

And here lies the secret of Diane Arbus' art. There is absolutely no way to see and admire her photographs in a measured, polite way. They grab you, shake you by the collar and demand an emotional response. I've heard from more than a few people that they were troubled by the feelings these photographs stirred up. Come to think of it, can you give an artist a better compliment than that?

The Last Picture Show: Artists Using Photography, 1960-1982

Hammer Museum

The Photographers of Genius

The Getty Museum

Diane Arbus Revelations

Los Angeles County Museum of Art

MOCA at California Plaza