From Nan Goldin: 9 Self Portraits.
Story Galleries and Performance
January 3, 2014 |If Robert Mapplethorpe had dialed down the BDSM and Patti Smith had dialed up the photography, you’d have had Peter Hujar and Nan Goldin—photographers, friends, and contemporaries during New York’s early-’80s sexual awakening. This month, the Fraenkel Gallery stages complementary exhibitions: Nan Goldin: 9 Self Portraits and Peter Hujar: Love & Lust.
“They were both self-reflective,” says the gallery’s director, Darius Himes, of the artists, “and very daring in that self-reflection.” Below, Himes delves into the two artists’ strengths, complete with nude portraits, smoldering cigarettes, and a very visceral point of view.
ON GOLDIN: “Her work has been largely autobiographical, like a photo diary. With the exhibit, you have her chronicling her own self and body over a 24-year period. There’s power in that. Here’s a woman in her 60s, and she’s quite bold to photograph herself and present herself with the body she has now.”
ON HUJAR: “The show is about love and lust in his work—his photos that look at sex and excitement in a way that is both radical and sophisticated. He was very interested in the male energy. It’s not going to be bondage, but there are photographs of erections and orgasms. There’s a challenge to look at sex as something beautiful.”
Both shows run Jan. 4-Mar. 8 at Fraenkel Gallery, Fraenkelgallery.com
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