Museums: December 2007 Archives

The NY Times has a good article on the recent acquisition of the Arbus archives by the Metropolitan Museum of Art.

Unlike the belongings of artists who fade gradually from view, which are sometimes scattered, pilfered or lost, Arbus's effects were in some ways frozen in time when she committed suicide at 48. Quickly her life began to acquire a cult status paralleling that of her photography.

Whenever these "archives" show up, I'm astonished at what packrats people must have been. I'm pretty loathe to throw much away, but every time I move apartments there's an opportunity to purge. When the archives of the luminaries of my generation start showing up I wager they will be mightly thin. Or in the Google cache.