Exhibition dates: 11th June 2016 – 12th February 2017
Nan Goldin (American, b. 1953)
Trixie on the Cot, New York City
1979
Silver dye bleach print, printed 2008
15 1/2 x 23 1/8″ (39.4 x 58.7cm)
The Museum of Modern Art, New York
Acquired through the generosity of Marian and James H. Cohen in memory of their son Michael Harrison Cohen
© 2016 Nan Goldin
This “seminal” body of work by Nan Goldin allegedly changed the course of photography. In my opinion, not for the better.
There is little love and tenderness here, little magic or generosity of spirit. Goldin’s attitude to the world at the time seems to be one of hostility and resentment. It’s all very well portraying the underbelly of society – the depravity, violence and degradation – but if your point of departure is one of anger and animosity, this is always going to be reflected in your art. I remember going out with my friends partying in the 1980s, the drugs, the sex, the pushing it to the edge, but you know what – we cared about each other. Nothing could be further from the truth in Goldin’s hedonistic (not heuristic) approach to her aura.
Shooting indiscriminately, hoping to find the rough diamond of an image, cuts both ways. In the arbitrary voyeurism of this work – do I snap now or a second later, what is happening outside of the frame – you never know what you are missing. Often you get nothing, or you get a reflection of yourself that is not very appealing. (Today is a very different world from the 1980s, we just snap and upload everything. These images are very of their time). There is so much more that could have been said other than through this controlling, diaristic approach to the subject matter.
I repeat, there seems to be a less than generous spirit captured in this work, of how Goldin looked at the world at that time, and it is reflected back to us in her images. Nothing to do with HIV / AIDS, nothing to do with bohemianism – everything to do with the spirit of the artist.
Dr Marcus Bunyan
Many thankx to the Museum of Modern Art for allowing me to publish the photographs in the posting. Please click on the photographs for a larger version of the image.
“Since David Armstrong and I were young he always referred to photography as “diving for pearls.” If you took a million pictures you were lucky to come out with one or two gems. … I never learned control over my machines. I made every mistake in the book. But the technical mistakes allowed for magic. … Random psychological subtexts that I never would have thought to intentionally create. The subconscious made visible – though whether mine or the camera’s I don’t know …”
Nan Goldin. “Diving for Pearls,” quoted in Hilton Als. “Nan Goldin’s Life in Progress,” on The New Yorker website, July 4, 2016 [Online] Cited 18/11/2021
Nan Goldin (American, b. 1953)
Buzz and Nan at the Afterhours, New York City
1980
Silver dye bleach print, printed 2008
15 1/2 x 23 1/4″ (39.4 x 59cm)
The Museum of Modern Art, New York
Purchase
© 2016 Nan Goldin
Nan Goldin (American, b. 1953)
Nan and Dickie in the York Motel, New Jersey
1980
Silver dye bleach print, printed 2008
15 1/2 x 23 1/8″ (39.4 x 58.7cm)
The Museum of Modern Art, New York
Purchase
© 2016 Nan Goldin
Nan Goldin (American, b. 1953)
Self-Portrait in Blue Bathroom, London
1980
Silver dye bleach print, printed 2016
20 x 24″ (50.8 x 61cm)
The Museum of Modern Art, New York
Gift of Nan Goldin
© 2016 Nan Goldin
Nan Goldin (American, b. 1953)
Heart-Shaped Bruise, New York City
1980
Silver dye bleach print, printed 2006
20 x 24″ (50.8 x 61cm)
The Museum of Modern Art, New York
Gift of Nan Goldin
© 2016 Nan Goldin
Nan Goldin (American, b. 1953)
David and Butch Crying at Tin Pan Alley, New York City
1981
Silver dye bleach print, printed 2009
15 1/2 x 23 1/8″ (39.4 x 58.7cm)
The Museum of Modern Art, New York
Purchase
© 2016 Nan Goldin
Nan Goldin (American, b. 1953)
Nan on Brian’s Lap, Nan’s Birthday, New York City
1981
Silver dye bleach print, printed 2008
15 1/2 x 23 1/8″ (39.3 x 58.7cm)
The Museum of Modern Art, New York
Purchase
© 2016 Nan Goldin
Nan Goldin (American, b. 1953)
Rise and Monty Kissing, New York City
1980
Silver dye bleach print, printed 2008
15 1/2 x 23 1/8″ (39.4 x 58.7cm)
The Museum of Modern Art, New York
Purchase
© 2016 Nan Goldin
Nan Goldin (American, b. 1953)
Philippe H. and Suzanne Kissing at Euthanasia, New York City
1981
Silver dye bleach print, printed 2008
15 1/2 x 23 1/8″ (39.4 x 58.7cm)
The Museum of Modern Art, New York
Purchase
© 2016 Nan Goldin
Nan Goldin (American, b. 1953)
Max and Richard, New York City
1983
Silver dye bleach print, printed 2006
15 9/16 x 23 1/16″ (39.6 x 58.5cm)
The Museum of Modern Art, New York. The Family of Man Fund
© 2016 Nan Goldin
Nan Goldin (American, b. 1953)
Nan and Brian in Bed, New York City
1983
Silver dye bleach print, printed 2006
15 1/2 x 23 3/16″ (39.4 x 58.9cm)
The Museum of Modern Art, New York
Acquired through the generosity of Jon L. Stryker
© 2016 Nan Goldin
Nan Goldin (American, b. 1953)
Nan One Month After Being Battered
1984
Silver dye bleach print, printed 2008
15 1/2 x 23 1/8″ (39.4 x 58.7cm)
The Museum of Modern Art, New York
Purchase
© 2016 Nan Goldin
Nan Goldin (American, b. 1953)
The Parents’ Wedding Photo, Swampscott, Massachusetts
1985
Silver dye bleach print, printed 2006
15 1/2 x 23 1/8″ (39.4 x 58.7cm)
The Museum of Modern Art, New York
Acquired through the generosity of Richard O. Rieger
© 2016 Nan Goldin
Comprising almost 700 snapshot-like portraits sequenced against an evocative music soundtrack, Nan Goldin’s The Ballad of Sexual Dependency is a deeply personal narrative, formed out of the artist’s own experiences around Boston, New York, Berlin, and elsewhere in the late 1970s, 1980s, and beyond. Titled after a song in Bertolt Brecht and Kurt Weill’s The Threepenny Opera, Goldin’s Ballad is itself a kind of downtown opera; its protagonists – including the artist herself – are captured in intimate moments of love and loss. They experience ecstasy and pain through sex and drug use; they revel at dance clubs and bond with their children at home; and they suffer from domestic violence and the ravages of AIDS.
“The Ballad of Sexual Dependency is the diary I let people read,” Goldin wrote. “The diary is my form of control over my life. It allows me to obsessively record every detail. It enables me to remember.”
The Ballad developed through multiple improvised live performances, for which Goldin ran through the slides by hand and friends helped prepare the soundtrack – from Maria Callas to The Velvet Underground – for an audience not unlike the subjects of the pictures. The Ballad is presented in its original 35mm format, along with photographs from the Museum’s collection that also appear as images in the slide show. Introducing the installation is a selection of materials from the artist’s archive, including posters and flyers announcing early iterations of The Ballad. Live performances will periodically accompany The Ballad during the course of the Museum’s presentation; performance details will be announced during the course of the exhibition presentation.
Press release from MoMA
Nan Goldin (American, b. 1953)
C.Z. and Max on the Beach, Truro, Massachusetts
1976
Silver dye bleach print, printed 2006
23 1/8 x 15 1/2″ (58.7 x 39.4cm)
The Museum of Modern Art, New York
Acquired through the generosity of Jon L. Stryker
© 2016 Nan Goldin
Nan Goldin (American, b. 1953)
The Hug, New York City
1980
Silver dye bleach print, printed 2008
23 1/8 x 15 1/2″ (58.7 x 39.4cm)
The Museum of Modern Art, New York. Purchase
© 2016 Nan Goldin
Janet Stein (designer)
Poster for ‘The Ballad of Sexual Dependency’, slide show by Nan Goldin, with ‘Desperate Living’, a film by John Waters
O.P. Screening Room, New York, March 29, 1982
Photocopy
11 × 8 1/2″ (27.9 × 21.6cm)
Collection Nan Goldin
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