One of the Greatest Street Photographers of the 20th Century: Kunsten Museum of Modern Art Presents Vivian Maier
From 19 June, Kunsten Museum of Modern Art Aalborg is devoting an exhibition to the work of Vivian Maier – one of the greatest street photographers of the 20th century. This special exhibition features 150 photographs of New York and Chicago from the 1950s to the 1970s.
Vivian Maier was a nanny. Her photographic talent was not discovered until after her death – by chance. Today, she is acclaimed for her ability to capture “the decisive moment”.
For 40 years, Vivian Maier (1926-2009) worked as a nanny, but possessed a unique talent for using a camera to capture the essence of a moment. Today she is lauded on a par with other iconic 20th-century street photographers such as Cartier-Bresson, Diane Arbus, Robert Frank and Garry Winogrand.
From 19 June, visitors to Kunsten Museum of Modern Art Aalborg can see about 150 of Vivian Maier’s works in both black-and-white and colour. Most were taken on the streets of New York and Chicago between the early 1950s and the late 1970s. The exhibition will also feature a selection of Maier’s short films.
“Maier’s photographs are considered edgy and gloomy, but they are also light and playful, at the same time revealing an empathic connection with the works’ protagonists. Her compositions and experiments indicate that she was more interested in photography as an art form than in the narratives she portrayed,” says Caroline Nymark Zachariassen, Chief Curator at Kunsten Museum of Modern Art Aalborg.
Capturing decisive moments in the theatre of the streets
Vivian Maier (1926-2009) was born in the New York borough of the Bronx to a French mother and an Austro-Hungarian father. She spent most of her youth in France, but in 1951 returned to the United States, where she worked as a nanny and carer for more than 40 years.
During her holidays, she travelled to the likes of South America, the Middle East and Asia, and spent her regular free time exploring the cities where she lived and worked, which included New York and Chicago.
“The streets were her theatre. Here, she watched engaged with and photographed people and passersby with her Rolleiflex camera. Today she is heralded for her ability to capture what the French photographer Cartier-Bresson called ‘the decisive moment’. Maier’s photographs and short films were highly experimental and considered modern for their time – even though they were discovered much later,” says Anne Morin, curator of the exhibition and director of diChroma Photography in Madrid, with which Kunsten Museum of Modern Art Aalborg has worked closely on this exhibition.
The exhibition reformulates the artistic canon
The nanny who took hundreds of thousands of photographs did not make it into the history books until after her death.
“Maier’s works were unknown to the public until shortly after her death, when they were sold at auction to pay bills. The buyer, John Maloof posted the works on Flickr and in 2013, after an overwhelmingly positive response, he made a documentary about the hitherto unknown photographer: Finding Vivian Maier. Since then, her works have been shown all over the world in various group and solo exhibitions,” says Caroline Nymark Zachariassen. By presenting the works of this self-taught female artist, first discovered after her death, but pivotal to the development of 20th-century street photography, the exhibition will help reformulate the artistic canon.
An existence shrouded in mystery
Even though Vivian Maier became famous after her death, her life continues to be shrouded in many mysteries.
“People who met her found her to be eccentric, strong, stubborn and distinctly intellectual. She was notoriously reserved, lived a seemingly withdrawn life and never started a family. The mysteries surrounding her seem to recur in her enigmatic self-portraits, in which she appears only as a shadow or a mirror image,” says Anne Morin.
Practical Information
The exhibition runs from 19 June to 22 September 2024.
If you would like to see more of Vivian Maier, concurrently with the exhibition at Kunsten Museum of Modern Art Aalborg there will be an exhibition of her works at Fotografiska New York (31 May to 29 September 2024).
About Kunsten Museum of Modern Art Aalborg
Kunsten Museum of Modern Art Aalborg is a modern art museum and experience centre – a place where everyone can find new inspiration, and the entire family can explore art and creativity. At Kunsten you can discover Danish and international art from the 1900s to the present day.
The museum’s permanent collection comprises around 4,000 works. In the exhibition rooms you can see both works from the collection and special temporary exhibitions. Every year we programme more than 200 lectures, concerts, family workshops, guided tours etc. to complement the exhibitions. Whenever you feel like a rest, Brasserie Kunsten serves coffee, cake and gourmet food.
The white marble building, dating from 1972, was designed by the world-famous Finnish architect, Alvar Aalto, assisted by Elissa Aalto and Jean-Jacques Baruël.
