Label
Barbara Crane (1928–2019)
Private Views, 1980–84
Polaroid Polacolor type 59 print
Collection of DePaul Art Museum,
gift of Elizabeth Crane, 2013.70.13,
2013.70.24, 2013.70.18, 2013.70.30, 2013.70.16
Shot at various summer festivals across
Chicago in the 1980s, Barbara Crane’s
series Private Views captures moments of
tenderness between strangers, with on-the-fly
close-ups of intertwining legs and arms and
hands placed on shoulders.
“Private Views is an homage to what many
might consider insignificant moments.
I chose these works because of Crane’s
ability to capture the ephemeral with such
transcendent and timeless care, eternalizing
limbs intertwined and lives sewn together,
even if just for a few seconds. These images
articulate, in their own way, concepts we lack
the language for, and ground the many little
cycles present within larger ones—even the
arms come together in an ever-going loop.”
—Bernardo Soares, B.A. History of Art and
Architecture