“The Ballad of Sexual Dependency” was the seminal photography collection of the eighties, capturing the era’s lawless bohemianism. To help improve this record, please email That project has concluded, and works are now being identified by MoMA staff. - L'Oeil de la Photographie, May 21, 2014 The Ballad of Sexual Dependency is a visual diary chronicling the struggle for intimacy and understanding between friends, family, and lovers—collectively described by Goldin as her “tribe.” Her work describes a world that is visceral, charged, and seething with life. About Comprising almost 700 snapshot-like portraits sequenced against an evocative music soundtrack, Nan Goldin’s The Ballad of Sexual Dependency is a deeply personal narrative, formed out of the artist’s own experiences around Boston, New York, Berlin, and elsewhere in the late 1970s, 1980s, and beyond.
It is an autobiographical document of a portion of New York City's No wave music and art scene, the post-Stonewall gay subculture of the late 1970s and early 1980s, the heroin subculture of the Bowery neighborhood, and Goldin’s personal family and love life. Our site uses technology that is not supported by your browser, so it may not work correctly. Her work describes a world that is visceral, charged, and Nan Goldin’s The Ballad of Sexual Dependency is a visual diary portraying the life of the artist and her friends through the 1970s and 1980s Read more Tate Modern The Ballad of Sexual Dependency is a 1985 slide show exhibition and 1986 artist's book publication of photographs taken between 1979 and 1986 by photographer Nan Goldin. The Ballad of Sexual Dependency started out as a slide show of Goldin’s photographs at clubs such as the louche (but always fun) Pyramid.
For thirty-five years Nan Goldin has obsessively recorded her life experiences, and her slide installation The Ballad of Sexual Dependency represents the zenith of this endeavor.
A hybrid of photography, film, and installation art, the work projects hundreds of Goldin’s photographs in a unique sequence, accompanied by a specified soundtrack. By Hilton Al s June …
In the exhibition, we first see the early posters for the shows, in some cases handwritten, sometimes without even dates, an artifact of that long-gone time before everyone had a printer.
Please Limited number of tickets available ($85; $75 for MoMA Members and employees of Corporate Members) Comprising almost 700 snapshot-like portraits sequenced against an evocative music soundtrack, Nan Goldin’s The installation is organized by Klaus Biesenbach, Chief Curator at Large, MoMA, and Director, MoMA PS1; Rajendra Roy, The Celeste Bartos Chief Curator of Film, MoMA; and Lucy Gallun, Assistant Curator, Department of Photography, MoMA.In 2018–19, MoMA collaborated with Google Arts & Culture Lab on a If you would like to reproduce an image of a work of art in MoMA’s collection, or an image of a MoMA publication or archival material (including installation views, checklists, and press releases), please contact All requests to license audio or video footage produced by MoMA should be addressed to Scala Archives at If you would like to reproduce text from a MoMA publication or moma.org, please email By visiting our website or transacting with us, you agree to this. In this way, Object information is a work in progress and may be updated as new research findings emerge. Multimedia installation (720 color slides and programmed soundtrack); edition 7/10Through prior bequest of Marguerita S. Ritman; restricted gift of Dorie Sternberg, the Photography Associates, Mary L. and Leigh B. Block Endowment, Robert and Joan Feitler, Anstiss and Ronald Krueck, Karen and Jim Frank, Martin and Danielle Zimmerman For thirty-five years Nan Goldin has obsessively recorded her life experiences, and her slide installation Goldin’s pictures, like images of family vacations or holidays, embrace photography’s potential for immediacy, emotion, and anecdote. Installation view of the exhibition, "Nan Goldin: The Ballad of Sexual Dependency" | MoMA In 2018–19, MoMA collaborated with Google Arts & Culture Lab on a project using machine learning to identify artworks in installation photos.