A Family on Their Lawn One Sunday Afternoon in Westchester, New York
| Artist | Diane Arbus (American, 1923–1971) |
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| Title | A Family on Their Lawn One Sunday Afternoon in Westchester, New York |
| Series | A Box of 10 Photographs |
| Date | 1968, printed ca. 1973 |
| Medium | Gelatin silver print |
| Dimensions | Image: 14 3/4 × 14 3/4 in. (37.5 × 37.5 cm) Sheet: 19 7/8 × 16 in. (50.5 × 40.6 cm) |
| Credit Line | Eskenazi Museum of Art, Indiana University |
| Accession Number | 81.25.1 |
| This artwork is currently off display. You may be able to see this artwork by filling out an art viewing room request. | |
A man and a woman are reclining on lawn chairs. A child is playing behind them in a small swimming pool.
The development of the instant camera in the 1950s made it cheaper and easier for the average family to capture its activities on film. Contemporary photographers later adapted the square framing device and raw quality of observation found in the “snapshot” to the large format. Diane Arbus used this aesthetic to show the foibles of contemporary society, from freaks and misfits to America’s consumer culture. While ostensibly revealing a modern notion of leisure, this image conveys a bitingly ironic vision of the suburban lifestyle and the concept of the nuclear family during the late 1960s. It contrasted in the same portfolio with her earlier image of a working-class Brooklyn family with a disabled child going for a Sunday outing.
| Printer | Neil Selkirk (American, born England, 1947) |
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| Series Title | A Box of 10 Photographs |
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Provenance research is ongoing for this and many other items in the Eskenazi Museum of Art permanent collection. For more information about the provenance of this artwork, please contact the department curator with specific questions.
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"A Family on Their Lawn One Sunday Afternoon in Westchester, New York | Collections Online." Collections Online. Sidney and Lois Eskenazi Museum of Art, Indiana University, 2025. https://artmuseum.indiana.edu/collections-online/browse/object.php?number=81.25.1