Vivian Maier: In Color
Located In: Hyndman Gallery
FREE EVENTS:
Opening Reception - Friday, July 7, 2023 from 5-8 PM
Gallery Talk - Saturday, July 15, 2023 from 11:30 AM
Vivian Maier: A Photographer’s Life and Afterlife - Sunday, July 30 at 5 PM
Family Day - Saturday, October 14, 2023 from 1-3 PM
Centered on the Chicago History Museum’s new Vivian Maier collection donated by art collector Jeffrey Goldstein, Vivian Maier: In Color features 50 color prints spanning the late 1950s through the 1970s.
Vivian Maier was more than a nanny photographer. She toed the line between a French immigrant and a local, a suburban nanny and a city dweller and a subject and an object who was only posthumously celebrated.
A discerning amateur photographer, Maier took thousands of pictures throughout her life, refining her craft through her explorations around Chicago, her home base from 1956 on. She collected intimate moments from her time as a caregiver in Chicago’s North Shore and gained in-depth perspective of the diverse city and its people. Maier took everyday moments and transformed them into something extraordinary. A discarded newspaper, a child resting her face in the sunlight of a ferry window, a scowling woman licking an ice cream cone outside a department store window―Maier’s photographs on the streets of Chicago and its suburbs encourage viewers to look beyond the ordinary.
In her photographs, Maier repeats particular compositions often looking up, down and through subjects in vastly different scenarios. She approached her subjects with an unwavering confidence that portrayed them in a similar light, revealing their parallels, intersections and tensions.
Maier died before her life’s work was shared with the world. She left behind hundreds of prints, 100,000 negatives and about a thousand rolls of undeveloped film, which were discovered when a collector purchased the contents of her storage lockers. There is no proof she ever made a concerted effort to show her work to any dealers or other artists―gifting us the mystery of an elusive woman behind the camera.
Vivian Maier: In Color was organized by the Chicago History Museum
Vivian Maier: In Color is sponsored by Aon
Vivian Maier: In Color was curated by Frances Dorenbaum
© The Estate of Vivian Maier
