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Diane Arbus
Xmas tree in a living room, Levittown, L.I., 1963

Artwork Info

Artwork title
Xmas tree in a living room, Levittown, L.I.
Artist name
Diane Arbus
Date created
1963
Classification
photograph
Medium
gelatin silver print
Dimensions
14 in. × 11 in. (35.56 cm × 27.94 cm)
Date acquired
2003
Credit
Gift of Carla Emil and Rich Silverstein
Copyright
© Estate of Diane Arbus, LLC
Permanent URL
https://www.sfmoma.org/artwork/2003.144
Artwork status
Not on view at this time.

Audio Stories

Hear about this image from the suburbs of Levittown

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NARRATOR:  

Elisabeth Sussman, the Sondra Gilman Curator of Photography at the Whitney Museum, gives us some insight into this rather unusual Diane Arbus photograph. Its titled Xmas Tree in a Living Room, Levittown, Long Island. 

 

SUSSMAN: 

What you have to know a little bit is what Levittown is, was: one of the first planned suburbs for middle-income people in postwar America. You would see every house more or less alike, stretching over the whole size of the town on Long Island. And she was fascinated by this. So this Levittown picture couldve been part of a whole plan she had for a whole series of pictures. And I suspect this one may be part of a group that she was fascinated by, and that is doing empty spaces that had no people in them. Nobodys in the room, nobodys watching television. But the Christmas tree, with all its sparkly presence, the reflection of that tree is on the screen of the TV. Its a very strange effect thats quite subtle. So worth looking at closely. 

 

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