A SHOW of new work by artist Nan Goldin entitled You never did anything wrong opens in New York this week. The exhibition consists of extensive new photography as well as two moving-image installations.
This is Goldin’s first exhibition of new work since she joined Gagosian last year.
Gravestone in pet cemetery, Lisbon, 1998. Archival pigment print 41 x 61 inches (104 x 154.8 cm)
Edition of 3 + 2APs © Nan Goldin. Courtesy the artist and Gagosian
You never did anything wrong, Part 1 (2024) is Goldin’s first abstract work. This is inspired by the myth that eclipses are caused by animals stealing the sun. Filmed in Super 8 and 16mm, You never did anything wrong, Part 1 takes the form of a home movie focused around the “totality of the solar eclipse”. The accompanying soundtrack includes music by Valerij Fedorenko, Mica Levi, as well as the ambient sounds of nature recorded during the eclipse.
Holy sheep, Rathmullen, Ireland, 2002. Archival pigment print 41 x 61 inches (104 x 154.8 cm)Edition of 3 + 2APs © Nan Goldin. Courtesy the artist and Gagosian
The other moving-image work, Stendhal Syndrome (2024), contrasts photographs Goldin has taken over the last 20 years of classical, renaissance and baroque masterpieces with imagery she has made of her community of friends, family and lovers.
Orpheus Dying, 2024 Archival pigment print 24 x 64 3/4 inches (60.8 x 164.5 cm) Edition of 3 + 2APs © Nan Goldin. Courtesy the artist and Gagosian
Hermaphroditus, 2024. Archival pigment print 34 x 49 7/8 inches (86.2 x 126.5 cm) Edition of 3 + 2APs © Nan Goldin. Courtesy the artist and Gagosian
Photographs of paintings and sculptures from museums around the world – including the Louvre, Galleria Borghese, the Metropolitan Museum of Art and the Prado – are juxtaposed with Goldin’s own images which creates an artistic resonance that seems to reveal universal emotional truths as well as formal similarities. These take the form of the grid images that Goldin has explored over the past 30 years.
Kiss 2, 2024 Archival pigment print 34 x 44 3/4 inches (86.2 x 113.7 cm) Edition of 3 + 2APs © Nan Goldin. Courtesy the artist and Gagosian
The eyes, 2024 (detail). Archival pigment print 53 7/8 x 77 7/8 inches (136.8 x 197.8 cm)
Edition of 3 + 2APs © Nan Goldin. Courtesy the artist and Gagosian
The moving-image works are presented in specially designed pavilions by Goldin working with Lebanese-French architect Hala Wardé. The design of each structure echoes the film it is showing inside. This creates a Gesamtkunstwerk something that unifies architecture, image, and sound.
by Caroline Simpson
You never did anything wrong opens on September 12, Gagosian, 522 West 21st Street, New York