Nan Goldin’s first major exhibition in Rome sees the photographer gaze back in time both to her roots and the work of artists who have far preceded her.

Mixing impressions of paintings and sculptures in the Louvre collections with her own images dating back to the late 1970s, Scopophilia constructs a lively dialogue between human subjects past and present. Sex, violence, rapture and gender – all subjects that have trailed Goldin throughout her career and themes that implode again here.

Nan Goldin  ‘Veils’, 2011-14 © Courtesy of the artist

Nan Goldin  ‘Cleopatra’, 2014 © Courtesy of the artist

The exhibition is accompanied by a 25-minute operatic slideshow in which these subjects are fused in motion. Narcissus, Tiresias, Cupid and Psyche all make appearances, paired with her own portraits of friends and family.

That this exhibition should be named for the Greek term, ‘love of looking’, reflects Goldin’s fascination with human desire and the erotic pleasure derived from viewing images of the body. It’s also a quiet invitation to enter Goldin’s world, a place at once tender and sexually charged.

Nan Goldin  ‘Crazy Scary’, 2011-2014  © Courtesy of the artist

Nan Goldin: Scopophilia runs until 24th May at Gagosian Rome, Via Francesco Crispi 16, 00187 Rome