This exhibition at Katonah Museum of Art (USA) was inspired by Nan Goldin’s The Hug (1980), a striking image of two people embracing in a dark corner cast in shadow by the flash of the camera. The powerful gesture of the image, and other equally compelling pictures of people holding, hugging, waiting, and gazing, and otherwise, are enacting their own forms of intimacy. The outcomes of the research of the Katonah Museum of Art have been overwhelming, resulting in a checklist comprised of works from major private and public collections. By turns disarmingly candid and unabashedly performative, the show examines how love is captured – and indeed at times bestowed – by the act of taking a picture. In the present moment of virtual like, love, and swipe, when all aspects of public and private life circulate in seemingly endless supply on the Internet, the exhibition takes a step back to look at the formidable history of this subject from a contemporary perspective. It forces us to slow down and consider how life is told through imagery, and the how our personal affections and relationships, be they permanent or fleeting, are transcribed through the record a photograph keeps.
Picturing Love: Photography’s pursuit of intimacy
March 19-June 25, 2017
Katonah Museum of Art
134 Jay St
Katonah, NY 10536
USA
