Advanced Search
Bebe, Cambridge
Nicholas Nixon (American, born in 1947)
1980
Medium/Technique
Photograph, gelatin silver contact print
Dimensions
Image: 20.2 x 24.6 cm (7 15/16 x 9 11/16 in.)
Sheet: 20.3 x 25.2 cm (8 x 9 15/16 in.)
Sheet: 20.3 x 25.2 cm (8 x 9 15/16 in.)
Credit Line
Museum purchase with funds donated by the National Endowment for the Arts and Richard L. Menschel, Bela T. Kalman, Judge and Mrs. Matthew Brown, Mildred S. Lee, and Barbara M. Marshall
Accession Number1990.80
NOT ON VIEW
CollectionsContemporary Art, Americas, Photography
ClassificationsPhotographs
Nicholas Nixon has made a revealing series of photographs of his wife, Bebe that goes beyond simple likeness and demonstrates the balance of power and trust inherent in human relationships. She is one of his favorite photographic subjects; he has regularly focused his large 8 x 10 camera on her since 1970, a year before they were married. His portraits of her, including this one in the bathtub, are never accidental or casual, and one senses in them the depth of their long relationship and their great respect for each other. Nixon has here transformed a simple, quotidian moment into a spectacular study of glowing light on Bebe's pale, serene face as she reclines in the tub and stares up at the ceiling, seemingly lost in thought.
Descriptionsilver chloride contact print
ProvenanceArtist; purchased January 1990.
Through funds provided by the National Endowment for the Arts and Richard L. Menschel, Béla T. Kalman, Judge and Mrs. Matthew Brown, Mildred S. Kee, and Barbara M. Marshall
Through funds provided by the National Endowment for the Arts and Richard L. Menschel, Béla T. Kalman, Judge and Mrs. Matthew Brown, Mildred S. Kee, and Barbara M. Marshall
Copyright© Nicholas Nixon, Courtesy Fraenkel Gallery, San Francisco