Nicholas Nixon
Tom Patchkiss, Arlington, Mass.

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Artist Nicholas Nixon (American, born 1947)American, born 1947

CultureAmerican

Titles

Tom Patchkiss, Arlington, Mass.
from the series People With AIDS

DateJuly 1987

PlaceArlington, Massachusetts, United States

MediumGelatin silver print

DimensionsImage: 7 11/16 × 9 5/8 in. (19.5 × 24.4 cm)
Sheet: 8 × 10 in. (20.3 × 25.4 cm)

Credit LineGift of Nina and Michael Zilkha

Object number2010.195.1

Not on view

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Department

Photography

Object Type

PHOTOGRAPHS

DescriptionNicholas Nixon began photographing people living with AIDS in the greater Boston area in 1987, when there was a great deal of prejudice, fear, and misunderstanding surrounding HIV/AIDS. Through his revealing, sensitive portraits, Nixon sought to encourage empathy and compassion. When this series was first shown at MoMA in 1988, protesters distributed fliers to museum visitors, reminding them that each of Nixon’s subjects was “a human being whose health has deteriorated not simply due to a virus, but due to government inaction, the inaccessibility of affordable health care, and institutionalized neglect in the forms of heterosexism, racism, and sexism.”
Provenance Research Ongoing Inscriptions, Signatures and Marks

In pencil verso lower left: "Tom Patchkiss, Arlington, MASS., July, 1987 20/50"

Signed in pencil verso lower right: "Nicholas Nixon"

Cataloguing data may change with further research.

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