Untitled (19)
gelatin silver print; sheet 20 by 16 in.; image 14 by 14.75 in.; framed (now removed) 24 by 20 in.
stamped on reverse of photo: "A Diane Arbus photograph 4/75
title Untitled (19) 1970-71 / print by Neil Selkirk/ (signature in ink) Diane Aubus"
also "Not to be reproduced in any way without written permission from Diane Arbus."
Selkirk (London, b. 1947) while working as an assistant to Richard Avedon in 1968 met Arbus and was profoundly affected by her work. In 1971 Selkkirk took Arbus's master class - a class she reluctantly gave in order to pay for a Pentax camera. Shortly after, Arbus committed suicide in July of 1971. Her estate requested Selkirk research and print her work for the 1972 posthumous retrospective at the Museum of Modern Art. He has since become the only person ever authorized to make posthumous prints of the photographs of Diane Arbus.
Arbus spent a long time trying to gain permission to shoot in institutions for the severely handicapped before finally gaining access in 1969. The best-known pictures feature a group of patients from a New Jersey institution dressed in their Halloween masks. The project was titled "Untitled" by her daughter after her death.
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