The Ballad of Sexual Dependency is a 1985 slide show exhibition and 1986 artist's book publication of photographs taken between 1979 and 1986 by photographer Nan Goldin.[1][2] Consisting of over 700 images,[3] it is an autobiographical document of a portion of New York City's No wave music and art scene, the post-Stonewall gay subculture of the late 1970s and early 1980s, the heroin subculture of the Bowery neighborhood, and Goldin's personal family and love life.[4]
Critic Sean O'Hagan, writing in The Guardian in 2014, said it "remains a benchmark for all other work in a similar confessional vein."[5] Lucy Davies, writing in The Telegraph in 2014, said it "would come to influence a generation of fledgling photographers, who fell into her truth-telling wake. She was credited by Bill Clinton with inventing heroin chic".[1]
Details
editThe title The Ballad of Sexual Dependency was adapted from a song in Bertolt Brecht's Threepenny Opera.[3]
It was originally devised as a slideshow set to the music of Velvet Underground, James Brown, Nina Simone, Charles Aznavour, Screamin' Jay Hawkins and Petula Clark among others, to entertain Goldin's friends.[5][2] It "portrayed her friends – many of them part of the hard-drugs subculture on New York's Lower East Side – as they partied, got high, fought and had sex. It was first publicly shown at the Whitney Biennial in New York in 1985 and was published as a photobook the following year."[5]
The snapshot aesthetic book was first published with help from Marvin Heiferman, Mark Holborn, and Suzanne Fletcher in 1986.[6]
Solo exhibitions
edit- 1985: The Ballad of Sexual Dependency, screening. Whitney Museum of American Art.[5]
- 1987: The Ballad of Sexual Dependency, screening. Rencontres d'Arles, Arles, France.[1]
- 2009: The Ballad of Sexual Dependency, exhibition and screening, Guest of honour at Rencontres d'Arles, Arles, France.[7]
- 2016: The Ballad of Sexual Dependency, exhibition and screening. Museum of Modern Art, New York.[3]
- 2017: The Ballad of Sexual Dependency, exhibition and screening. Portland Museum of Art, Portland, Maine.[8]
- 2019: NAN GOLDIN - The Ballad of Sexual Dependency, display and screening. Tate Modern, London.[9]
Publications
edit- The Ballad of Sexual Dependency.
- New York, NY: Aperture, 1986. ISBN 978-0-89381-236-2.
- New York, NY: Aperture, 2012. Hardback ISBN 978-1-59711-208-6. Paperback ISBN 978-1-59711-210-9.
Collections
editThe Ballad of Sexual Dependency is held in the following permanent collection:
References
edit- ^ a b c Beyfus, Drusilla (26 Jun 2009). "Nan Goldin: unafraid of the dark". The Daily Telegraph. Retrieved 27 December 2014.
- ^ a b Bracewell, Michael (14 November 1999). "Landmarks in the Ascent of Nan". The Independent. Retrieved 27 December 2014.
- ^ a b c Johnson, Ken (14 July 2016). "Bleak Reality in Nan Goldin's 'The Ballad of Sexual Dependency'". The New York Times. Retrieved 20 June 2024.
- ^ Goldin, Nan (2012). Marvin Heiferman; Mark Holborn; Suzanne Fletcher (eds.). The ballad of sexual dependency (2012 reissue ed.). New York, N.Y.: Aperture Foundation. ISBN 978-1-59711-208-6.
- ^ a b c d O'Hagan, Sean (20 July 2010). "Nan Goldin: 'I wanted to get high from a really early age'". The Guardian. Retrieved 27 December 2014.
- ^ "The Ballad of Sexual Dependency". Fraenkel Gallery. 13 February 2024. Retrieved 20 June 2024.
- ^ "NAN GOLDIN" (PDF). Fraenkel Gallery. 2020. Retrieved 19 June 2024.
- ^ Kany, Daniel (November 5, 2017). "Nan Goldin's Sexual Sanctuary on view at Portland Museum of Art".
- ^ "Nan Goldin: Until 27 October 2019 – Display at Tate Modern". Tate.
- ^ Walters, Joanna (22 March 2019). "Tate art galleries will no longer accept donations from the Sackler family". The Guardian. ISSN 0261-3077. Retrieved 2019-03-24 – via www.theguardian.com.
