Nan Goldin (American, born 1953)
Silver dye bleach print; 20 x 24 in. (50.8 x 61 cm)
Purchase, The Horace W. Goldsmith Foundation Gift through Joyce and Robert Menschel, 2001 (2001.627)
© 1983 Nan Goldin
Like her subjects, Goldin operates in the gap between art and life that is the special province of the bohemian—where one's attitude and attire, relationships and lifestyle are as carefully constructed and dramatically expressed as any work of art. During her first decade of work, from the mid-1970s to the '80s, the artist literally lived with her camera, producing more than 800 images that were originally presented as a slide show with music entitled The Ballad of Sexual Dependency—a cumulative work in the shape of a life. Nan and Brian in Bed is Goldin's signature image and served as the cover image for the book version of The Ballad, a contemporary vision of alienation and romantic discord set in the photogenic squalor of New York's Lower East Side.
