Not currently on display at the V&A

Jimmy Paulette on David's Bike

Photograph
1991 (photographed)
Artist/Maker
Goldin, Nan (photographer)
Place of origin
New York (City) (photographed)

Goldin photographed Jimmy Paulette and his community of gay men and cross-dressers from the 1970s. By panning with the motion of the bicycle, Goldin creates a blurred background that accentuates the image's filmic quality. The photograph is part of a series that records the history of a group on the margins of society, and ultimately, Goldin's own story of friendship and love.


Object details

Categories
Photographs
Gender and Sexuality
LGBTQ
Object type
Photograph
Titles
  • Jimmy Paulette on David's Bike (assigned by artist)
  • The Ballad of Sexual Dependency (series title)
Materials and techniques
Dye destruction (ilfachrome) print
Photographic Paper
Dye Destruction
Brief description
Photograph by Nan Goldin, 'Jimmy Paulette on David's Bike, NYC', dye destruction print, 1991
Physical description
Photograph of a man and a drag queen riding on a bicycle. The latter looks over his shoulder at the viewer.
Dimensions
  • Height: 70.2cm
  • Width: 101.7cm
Dimensions taken from Victoria and Albert Museum Department of Prints, Drawings and Paintings Accession Register for 1997
Style
Art Photography
Marks and inscriptions
Signed, dated and inscribed in black ink on the back, and numbered 20/25
Gallery label
  • Photography Centre, 2018-20: Nan Goldin (born 1953) Jimmy Paulette on David's Bike, NYC 1991 Goldin uses photography as an autobiographical tool to capture the daily lives of her friends within the subcultures of New York. During the 1980s, her intimate and perceptive work helped to cement her reputation as one of the world’s most influential female photographers. Goldin is fascinated by drag queens, saying ‘I wanted to pay homage, to show them how beautiful they were’. Dye destruction print Museum no. E.804-1997
  • Goldin uses photography as an autobiographical tool to capture images of her friends and their daily lives within the subcultures of New York. The Ballad of Sexual Dependency is comprised of hundreds of images that Goldin has edited and sequenced to produce a slide show of the photographs. This extraordinarily intimate and perceptive body of work, made between 1980-1986, helped to cement Goldin's reputation as one of the most influential female photographers in the late 1980s and 1990s.
Credit line
Purchased 1997
Subjects depicted
Bicycle
Drag
Drag Queen
Gender Identity
Places depicted
New York
Summary
Goldin photographed Jimmy Paulette and his community of gay men and cross-dressers from the 1970s. By panning with the motion of the bicycle, Goldin creates a blurred background that accentuates the image's filmic quality. The photograph is part of a series that records the history of a group on the margins of society, and ultimately, Goldin's own story of friendship and love.
Bibliographic references
  • Victoria and Albert Museum Department of Prints, Drawings and Paintings Accession Register for 1997
  • Haworth-Booth, Mark. Photography: An Independent Art. London, 1997. pp. 194-196, pl. 84
Collection
Prints, Drawings & Paintings Collection
Accession number
E.804-1997

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Record createdJuly 26, 2004
Record URL
https://collections.vam.ac.uk/item/O101953/jimmy-paulette-on-davids-bike-photograph-goldin-nan/
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