SAN FRANCISCO, CA.- Diane Arbus: Sanctum Sanctorum, an exhibition of forty-five photographs made in private places across New York, New Jersey, California, and London between 1961 and 1971, is on view at Fraenkel Gallery from March 12 to May 22, 2026, following an exhibition at David Zwirner, London. The exhibition will be accompanied by a comprehensive monograph reproducing works in the exhibition, jointly published by both galleries.

Through her singular combination of intelligence, charisma, intuition, and courage, Diane Arbus was frequently invited into homes and other private realms seldom seen by strangers. Though made in intimate settings, her photographs evidence no sense of intrusion or trespass. Instead, they reveal an unspoken exchange between photographer and subject, a moment of recognition in which confidences emerge freely and without judgment.

While many of Arbus’s photographs have become part of the public’s collective consciousness since her landmark retrospective at the Museum of Modern Art, New York, in 1972, seen in this context, viewers may discover aspects of even familiar works that have previously gone unnoticed.

Sanctum Sanctorum follows two recent major exhibitions of the artist’s work: Cataclysm: The 1972 Diane Arbus Retrospective Revisited at David Zwirner New York (2022) and Los Angeles (2025), and Diane Arbus: Constellation at LUMA, Arles (2023–2024), the Park Avenue Armory, New York (2025), and Gropius Bau, Berlin (2025–2026).

On Saturday, March 14, in celebration of Arbus’s birthday, the Roxie Theater in San Francisco will present a rare special screening of A Slide Show and Talk by Diane Arbus. The original audio recording encompasses Arbus’s 1970 slide presentation, in which the artist speaks about photography using her own work and other photographs, snapshots, and clippings from her collection. The screening will be followed by a discussion with photographer and filmmaker Neil Selkirk, the only person authorized by the Arbus Estate to print from Arbus’s negatives, and Jeffrey Fraenkel. All proceeds from the screening will go directly toward supporting the Roxie.

Diane Arbus (1923–1971) is one of the most original and influential photographers of the twentieth century. In 1963 and 1966 she was awarded John Simon Guggenheim Fellowships and was one of three photographers whose work was the focus of New Documents, John Szarkowski’s landmark exhibition at the Museum of Modern Art in 1967. A year after her death, her work was selected for inclusion in the Venice Biennale, and from 1972 to 1975, the Museum of Modern Art hosted a major traveling retrospective. Her photographs are in the collections of numerous institutions around the world, including the Art Gallery of Ontario, Canada; the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York; the Museum of Modern Art, New York; and Tate Gallery, London, among many others.