The Brown sisters, 1998
Nicholas Nixon
The Brown sisters, 1998
© Nicholas Nixon, courtesy Fraenkel Gallery, San Francisco and Pace/MacGill Gallery, New York, 2020
© Fundación MAPFRE COLLECTIONS
Technique
Gelatin silver print
Measurements
Measurements of printed area: 46 x 57,2 cm (18 1/8 x 22 1/2 in.)
Paper size: 51 x 61 cm (20 1/16 x 24 in.)
Inventory
FM000364
Description
At a family reunion in August 1974, Nicholas Nixon took a photograph of his wife Bebe and her sisters Mimi, Laurie and Heather. After considering it to be an unsuccessful portrait, he took a second photograph, the first in a series known today as The Brown Sisters. The series shares some of the same formal features from then onwards. The four women always appear in the same order, looking at the lens. The photographs make us feel as if we are witnessing a private scene that is also brimming with profound universal significance: the natural poses, the vulnerability and the unavoidable passage of time can all be seen in these works. From a formal perspective, the photographs are remarkable for their precision and tonal richness; conceived as a series, they become moments of harmony within an unceasing course of transformation.
Danese, Renato (ed.) Ars Medica: Art, medicine and the human condition, Philadelphia Museum of Art, 1985
American Images, New York, McGraw-Hill, 1979
Familienbilder: Nicholas Nixon, Hannover, Sprengel Museum, 1994
Family Pictures: photographs by Nicholas Nixon, Washington D.C., Smithsonian Institution Press, 1991
Jenkins, William (ed.), Topographics, Rochester, New York, International Museum of Photography, George Eastman House, 1975
Liesbrock, Heinz and Thomas Weski, How you look at it: photographs of the 20th Century, Hannover, Sprengel Museum, 2000
Live love look last, London / San Francisco / New York , Steidl / Fraenkel Gallery / Pace / McGill Gallery, 2009
Nicholas Nixon, Madrid, TF Editores, 2003 (text by Carlos Gollonet)
Nicholas Nixon: at home, Ottsville, Pennsylvania, Lodima Press, 2004
Nicholas Nixon. The Brown Sisters, 1975-2007, Madrid, Fundación MAPFRE, 2008 (text by Peter Galassi)
Nicholas Nixon: photographs from one year, Carmel, California, Friends of Photography, 1983
Nicholas Nixon: Pictures of People, New York, Museum of Modern Art, 1988 (text by Peter Galassi)
Nicholas Nixon. The Brown Sisters, thirty-three years, New York, Museum of Modern Art, 2007 (text by Peter Galassi)
Ollman, Arthur, The Model Wife, San Diego Museum of Art. 1999
Pare, Richard (ed.), Courthouse, New York, Horizon, 1978
People WITH AIDS. Nicholas & Bebe Nixon, Boston, 1991 (text by David R. Godine)
School: photographs from three schools by Nicholas Nixon, New York, Bulfinch Press / Little, Brown, 1998
Szarkowski, John (ed.), A city seen, Cleveland Museum of Art, 2001
(ed.) Mirrors and windows, New York, Museum of Modern Art, 1978
(ed.), 20th Century photographs from the Museum of Modern Art, New York, Museum of Modern Art, 1984
The Brown Sisters, New York, Museum of Modern Art, 1999
XL photography 2, Berlin, Hatge Cantz Collection, Deutsche Börse, 2002 (texts by Jean-Christophe Ammann, Philip-Lorca diCorcia, Roni Horn, Nicholas Nixon and Erwin Wurm).
