Marvin Israel

Though relatively unknown, Marvin Israel was one of the most influential and powerful cultural authorities in the early 1960s. As the art director of Harpar's Bazaar, he pushed the envelope, giving exposure to groundbreaking artists and photographers such as Henri Cartier-Bresson, Andy Warhol, Richard Avedon, and Peter Beard. He was especially close to the Diane Arbus, with whom he had a ten year-long affair while married to the sculptor and ceramicist Margaret Ponce. It was Israel who found Arbus' body after she committed suicide. Israel's surrealist compositions in both photography and painting are often evocative of a somewhat sinister and shadowy violence, implied in their oblique sexuality. 

In 2011, Diane Arbus' daugher Doon Arbus co-directed and produced a documentary, titled "Who is Marvin Isreal," documenting the life and work of the brilliant and enigmatic artist and influencer.