You must join the virtual exhibition queue when you arrive. If capacity has been reached for the day, the queue will close early.
Learn more
Jump to content tickets Member | Make a donation
- The Collection
- The American Wing Ancient Near Eastern Art Arms and Armor The Michael C. Rockefeller Wing Asian Art The Cloisters The Costume Institute Drawings and Prints Egyptian Art European Paintings European Sculpture and Decorative Arts Greek and Roman Art Islamic Art Robert Lehman Collection The Libraries Medieval Art Musical Instruments Photographs Antonio Ratti Textile Center Modern and Contemporary Art
Crop your artwork:
Scan your QR code:
Gratefully built with ACNLPatternTool
Nan Goldin American
Not on view
Like her subjects, Goldin operates in the gap between art and life that is the special province of the bohemian-where one's attitude and attire, relationships and lifestyle are as carefully constructed and dramatically expressed as any work of art. During her first decade of work, from the mid-1970s to the '80s, the artist literally lived with her camera, producing more than 800 images that were originally presented as a slide show with music entitled The Ballad of Sexual Dependency-a cumulative work in the shape of a life. Nan and Brian in Bed is Goldin's signature image and served as the cover image for the book version of The Ballad, a contemporary vision of alienation and romantic discord set in the photogenic squalor of New York's Lower East Side.
Open Access
As part of the Met's Open Access policy, you can freely copy, modify and distribute this image, even for commercial purposes.
API
Public domain data for this object can also be accessed using the Met's Open Access API.
- Download image
This image cannot be enlarged, viewed at full screen, or downloaded.
Artwork Details
Use your arrow keys to navigate the tabs below, and your tab key to choose an item
Title: Nan and Brian in Bed, NYC
Artist: Nan Goldin (American, born Washington, D.C., 1953)
Date: 1983
Medium: Silver dye bleach print
Dimensions: Image: 20 × 24 in. (50.8 × 61 cm)
Sheet: 20 × 24 in. (50.8 × 61 cm)
Classification: Photographs
Credit Line: Purchase, The Horace W. Goldsmith Foundation Gift, through Joyce and Robert Menschel, 2001
Accession Number: 2001.627
Rights and Reproduction: © 1983 Nan Goldin
Learn more about this artwork
The Power of Photography
Guest Blogger Ambar describes a photograph by Pierre-Louis Pierson that drew her into the exhibition Grand Illusions: Staged Photography from the Met Collection.
Timeline of Art History
Essay
Art and Photography: The 1980s
Chronology
The United States and Canada, 1900 A.D.-present
Museum Publications
Photography’s Last Century: The Ann Tenenbaum and Thomas H. Lee Collection
Art = Discovering Infinite Connections in Art History
A Centennial Album: Drawings, Prints, and Photographs
Related Artworks
- All Related Artworks
- By Nan Goldin
- Photographs Department
- Photographs
- Silver-dye bleach prints
- From North and Central America
- From United States
- From A.D. 1900–present
Ivy
Nan Goldin (American, born Washington, D.C., 1953)
1972–73
Heart-Shaped Bruise, NYC
Nan Goldin (American, born Washington, D.C., 1953)
1980
French Chris on the Convertible, NYC
Nan Goldin (American, born Washington, D.C., 1953)
1979
The Hug, NYC
Nan Goldin (American, born Washington, D.C., 1953)
1980
Valérie in Bright Light, Paris
Nan Goldin (American, born Washington, D.C., 1953)
2001
Resources for Research
The Met's Libraries and Research Centers provide unparalleled resources for research and welcome an international community of students and scholars.
The Met Collection API is where all makers, creators, researchers, and dreamers can connect to the most up-to-date data and public domain images for The Met collection. Open Access data and public domain images are available for unrestricted commercial and noncommercial use without permission or fee.
Feedback
We continue to research and examine historical and cultural context for objects in The Met collection. If you have comments or questions about this object record, please complete and submit this form. The Museum looks forward to receiving your comments.
Photographs at The Met
The Met's Department of Photographs houses a collection of more than 75,000 works spanning the history of photography from its invention in the 1830s to the present.