NICHOLAS NIXON
Nicholas Nixon (b. 1947) is known for the ease and intimacy of his black and white large format photographs. Nixon has photographed porch life in the rural south, schools in and around Boston, cityscapes, sick and dying people, the intimacy of couples, and the ongoing annual portrait of his wife, Bebe, and her three sisters (which he began in 1975). Recording his subjects close and with meticulous detail, he facilitates an emotional connection between the viewer and the subject.
In 2014, Nixon’s annual portrait series, The Brown Sisters, reached its 40th anniversary. The complete series was exhibited at the Museum of Modern Art and re-published in an anniversary catalogue. In Summer 2013 Nixon’s book Close Far was released by Steidl. The body of work explores the self in physical and psychological proximity to the urban landscape. In 2017, Fundación MAPFRE in Madrid opened a comprehensive survey of the artist’s work to date, accompanied by a catalogue illustrating over 200 images, and the ICA Boston mounted a chronological retrospective exhibition.
Nixon has been awarded three National Endowment for the Arts Fellowships and two Guggenheim Fellowships. His work is included in the collections of the Metropolitan Museum of Art, the Museum of Modern Art, New York, the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, the National Gallery of Art, the Smithsonian Institution, and the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, among many others.
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