Museum of Fine Arts Boston “Nicholas Nixon: Family Album" ~ Photography Exhibit

Written by Arthur Pollock Sunday, 01 August 2010 21:11

Boston, MA - If scrap-bookers ever need inspiration, they should see the new “Nicholas Nixon: Family Album” photography exhibit at the Museum of Fine Arts. It’s a celebration of family life, featuring more than 70 black-and-white photographs by the Boston-based artist.The tour de force of the show is a series of photos entitled “The Brown Sisters.” It started innocently enough with a family portrait of Nixon’s wife, Bebe, and her sisters one summer back in 1975. The next summer the sisters requested another group portrait,and he got the idea to do a similar pose of them, always in the same order, every year. For 35 years, each summer the sisters have indulged him. On view at the Museum of Fine Arts Boston through May 1, 2011.

Their collaboration has created a sweeping look at one close-knit family through the years, evoking themes of relationships, the passing of time and inevitably, mortality. This summer’s portrait will be added to the gallery sometime during the exhibition’s run. In this digital age of photography, Nixon is decidedly old-school. He creates gelatin prints with an 8x10-inch view camera and tripod. But these are not the studied landscapes of the old masters that required long exposures.

He adds a modern touch by using a lightweight camera as he moves around his house to capture natural images of his subjects. The format makes for contact prints with fine clarity and tone. The exhibit exudes love of family by a modern American master. It should send many viewers home motivated to try to capture the joy and wonder of their own families for posterity.

Among the most compelling of Nicholas Nixon’s series of photographs are the portraits that he has made of his close-knit family. These photographs, taken over time, explore the nature of long-committed relationships. The exhibition features the entire sequence of the celebrated portraits of the artist’s wife, Bebe, and her three sisters. Taken annually, the Brown Sisters pictures reveal gradual changes in their physiques and shifts in their relationships. The exhibition also includes photographs of the artist’s daily life with Bebe and their children Samuel and Clementine (born in the early 1980s), which enable viewers to share in the daily interactions and joys of parenthood.

Also included in the show are recent portraits of Bebe and self-portraits that stand for the steadiness of long marriage. Nicholas Nixon, who teaches at Massachusetts College of Art, is one of the most celebrated American photographers of our generation. The Brown Sisters photographs are a promised gift of James and Margie Krebs. Many of the other works in the exhibition are loans from the photographer.  Visit The Museum of Fine Arts Boston at : www.mfa.org/ - Review / By Arthur Pollock

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