Nan Goldin: Stendhal Syndrome
November 7, 2025–April 12, 2026
Nan Goldin, Stendhal Syndrome, 2024 (video still), single-channel video, Jointly owned by the Vancouver Art Gallery and Walker Art Center, Minneapolis, Purchased with funds from the Curators’ Council Fund for Women Artists and the Jean MacMillan Southam Fund, Image: © Nan Goldin, Courtesy of the Artist and Gagosian
Nan Goldin: Stendhal Syndrome explores the intimate and emotional force of Goldin’s photography through the moving-image format. Goldin is renowned for her slideshows, which were originally composed of 35mm slides on carousels set to music but are now presented as single-channel videos. Her moving-image works invite viewers to experience Goldin’s images not just as visual narratives, but as visceral encounters.
Drawing on the metaphor of the Stendhal Syndrome—a psychosomatic condition of dizziness, confusion or even hallucinations triggered by exposure to intense beauty—Stendhal Syndrome (2024) juxtaposes Goldin’s photographs taken over the last twenty years of Classical, Renaissance and Baroque masterpieces with portraits of her friends, chosen family and lovers.
Nan Goldin: Stendhal Syndrome features a new acquisition to the Gallery’s permanent collection and represents the first major presentation of Goldin’s work in Vancouver.
