Merry Alpern
Merry Alpern (born 1955 in
Early life and career
Alpern was a sociology major when she dropped out of
Dirty Windows, 1993-94
Alpern discovered an illegal sex club through the window of a friend's Wall Street loft in 1993.[8] She spent "several nights a week for nine months" photographing her view of the club using a telephoto lens. The club was eventually shut down, but while it was open, "nothing was ever done to create a semblance of privacy," allowing Alpern to create a large number of images. Alpern submitted prints to the NEA and was awarded a grant by a peer panel, which was subsequently rescinded by the NEA's advisory council.[8] Upon the exhibition of Dirty Windows at Bonni Benrubi Gallery, New York Times critic Charles Hagen called the images "nowhere near as explicit as, say, any number of magazines on your corner newsstand," and questioned both the cancellation and the awarding of the NEA grant, given how "repetitive" the images were.[10]
Works
- A.J. and Jim Bob, 1987-88.
- Dirty Windows, 1993-94.
- Shopping, 1999.
References
- ISBN 978-0-203-84759-6.
- ISBN 9780814793510.
- ^ Schemo, Dian Jean (November 3, 1994). "Endowment Ends Program Helping Individual Artists". The New York Times. Retrieved February 21, 2017.
- ^ Knight, Christopher (January 8, 1995). "THE NATION / THE CULTURE WARS : A Day in the Death of the NEA: Did Agency's Success Cause Its Demise?". Los Angeles Times. Retrieved February 21, 2017.
- ^ Goldberg, Vicki (October 29, 1995). "PHOTOGRAPHY VIEW;Testing the Limits In a Culture of Excess". The New York Times. Retrieved February 21, 2017.
- ^ Jones, Jana Henlebem (2012–13). "The Art of Sincerity" (PDF). Academic Forum. 30: 30.
- ^ "Public, Private, Secret—Merry Alpern with Pauline Vermare". International Center of Photography. 2016-12-19. Retrieved 2018-04-06.
- ^ a b c American Photo. February 1995.
- ^ American Photo. August 1995.
- ISSN 0362-4331. Retrieved 2020-03-09.
External links
- Merry Alpern, Museum of Modern Art.
- Merry Alpern's Hidden Camera, The National Museum of Women in the Arts, 2011.
- Public, Private, Secret Exhibition; International Center of Photography Museum.
- Artist Merry Alpern and Associate Curator Pauline Vermare discuss Alpern's series Dirty Windows, included in Public, Private, Secret—on view at the ICP Museum (250 Bowery) from June 23, 2016 to January 8, 2017.