Mr. and Mrs. Santa Claus, Diane Arbus; Neil Selkirk

Artwork Overview

Diane Arbus, photographer
1923–1971
Neil Selkirk, printer
born 1947
Mr. and Mrs. Santa Claus, 1964
Where object was made: United States
Material/technique: gelatin silver print
Dimensions:
Image Dimensions Height/Width (Height x Width): 35.9 x 36.6 cm
Image Dimensions Height/Width (Height x Width): 14 1/8 x 14 7/16 in
Mat Dimensions (Height x Width): 25 x 20 in
Credit line: Museum purchase
Accession number: 1985.0068
Not on display

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Images

Label texts

Exhibition Label: "Signs of Faith: Photographs from the Collection," Oct-2001, Elissa L.Anderson Diane Arbus’s Mr. and Mrs. Santa Claus is a work from a series she completed for a 1964 Saturday Evening Post article entitled “This Ho-Ho-Ho Business,” which was about the 28th-annual Santa Claus School in Albion, New York. This picture of the Clauses suggests that we see the couple as the secular “king” and “queen” of Christmas. Born out of nineteenth-century popular culture, Santa Claus supplanted traditional Christian saints as the holiday’s icon.

Exhibitions

Anthony Lee, curator
John Pultz, curator
2006
Anthony Lee, curator
John Pultz, curator
2005
Anthony Lee, curator
John Pultz, curator
2005
Anthony Lee, curator
John Pultz, curator
2005
John Pultz, curator
2004–2005
Anthony Lee, curator
John Pultz, curator
2004
Anthony Lee, curator
John Pultz, curator
2004
Anthony Lee, curator
John Pultz, curator
2004
Anthony Lee, curator
John Pultz, curator
2003
Thomas Southall, curator
1984–1987