{"id":68590,"date":"2018-07-18T09:53:05","date_gmt":"2018-07-18T09:53:05","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.sleek-mag.com\/?p=68590"},"modified":"2018-07-24T15:29:23","modified_gmt":"2018-07-24T15:29:23","slug":"david-wojnarowicz","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.sleek-mag.com\/de\/article\/david-wojnarowicz\/","title":{"rendered":"Everything you need to know about David Wojnarowicz, the queer artist who gave a voice to outsiders"},"content":{"rendered":"","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_kad_post_transparent":"","_kad_post_title":"","_kad_post_layout":"","_kad_post_sidebar_id":"","_kad_post_content_style":"","_kad_post_vertical_padding":"","_kad_post_feature":"","_kad_post_feature_position":"","_kad_post_header":false,"_kad_post_footer":false,"_kad_post_classname":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[11856,139],"tags":[1288,9651,4695,1217,10845,10846,4459,10847,567,124,10848,10849],"class_list":["post-68590","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-sleek-art","category-art","tag-1970s","tag-1980s","tag-aids-crisis","tag-america","tag-arthur-rimbaud","tag-david-breslin","tag-david-wojnarowicz","tag-east-village","tag-nan-goldin","tag-new-york","tag-peter-hujar","tag-whitney-museum-of-american-art"],"acf":{"main_category":139,"legacy":false,"subtitle":"As a retrospective opens of the fearless artist and AIDS activist's work, we spoke with the exhibition's curator to discover why Wojnarowicz's art is so necessary now.","hero":{"video":false,"image":false,"header_color":"black","overlay_color":"","overlay_text_color":"black"},"teasers":{"video":false,"image":false,"width":"4","proportion":"default"},"related_articles":[68588,48251,62785],"next_article":[68588],"content":[{"acf_fc_layout":"images","gallery":false,"settings":{"fit_width":"6","caption":"David Wojnarowicz with Tom Warren, Self-Portrait of David Wojnarowicz, 1983\u201384. Photography by Ron Amstutz."}},{"acf_fc_layout":"text_area","text_area":"

Chances are you will have seen a photograph<\/a> of<\/span> David Wojnarowicz even if you\u2019re not familiar with him, or his work. With a long, narrow chin, steely gaze, prominent eye circles and a plump, sullen mouth, the New York artist made a striking subject. Most famously photographed by his friend and mentor \u2014 and one time lover \u2014 the masterful Peter Hujar<\/a>, Wojnarowicz\u2019s intense and unforgettable glare embodies the fire and fury of ’80s New York; a time when the AIDS crisis was ripping through America and entire neighbourhoods and communities were collapsing. Working in the East Village from the late ’70s up until his untimely death from AIDS in 1992 at the age of 37, Wojnarowicz was not just an enigmatic face for the era, but an artist of extraordinary talent and diverse creative sensibilities \u2014 he was a photographer, painter, musician and filmmaker as well as an articulate writer and speaker, and fervent poet. Last weekend, <\/span>David Wojnarowicz: History Keeps Me Awake at Night<\/span><\/i><\/a> \u2014 the first retrospective of this inimitable artist since 1999 \u2014\u00a0opened at the Whitney Museum of American Art, paying heed to both the complex, heterogeneous nature of his art, and the bold, unflinching vigour of his politically-charged output. <\/span><\/p>\n

In conjunction with the opening of <\/span>the<\/span>\u00a0deeply personal and electrifyingly political exhibition, SLEEK sits down with the exhibition\u2019s co-curator, David Breslin, to gain a comprehensive insight into what we need to know about this fearless artist \u2014 <\/span>what makes his work so necessary \u2014<\/span> at this particular moment in time.<\/span><\/p>\n"},{"acf_fc_layout":"text_area","text_area":"

1. He existed on the margins<\/span><\/h2>\n"},{"acf_fc_layout":"images","gallery":false,"settings":{"fit_width":"6","caption":"Arthur Rimbaud in New York, 1978\u201379, 1990. Courtesy of the Estate of David Wojnarowicz and P.P.O.W., NY."}},{"acf_fc_layout":"text_area","text_area":"

Wojnarowicz\u2019s status as an outsider informed his work from the beginning. Associated with a long history of outsider artists \u2014 those on the margins, and separate from the commercialism and constraints of mainstream culture \u2014 Wojnarowicz was attune to things that others might take for granted; he was interested in the \u201cmiracle of the everyday\u201d. His outsider identity was on account of a difficult upbringing: his parents abandoned him as a boy and he spent his childhood in and out of temporary homes, and hustled for a living as a teenager. In an interview with the journalist Matthew Rose, Wojnarowicz says that when he first arrived in New York in the late ’70s, he slept in doorways in Times Square before \u201cliving with several ex-convicts in a halfway house\u201d. According to Breslin, it was his interest in avant-garde writers such as Jean Genet and Arthur Rimbaud that allowed him to \u201cfind a way into the world\u201d (the influence of the latter was most famously seen in Wojnarowicz\u2019s photographic series <\/span>Arthur Rimbaud in New York<\/span><\/i>, where the artist photographed himself wearing a mask of the French\u2019s poet\u2019s face against the grim, grey sites of the city to emphasise their similarities). \u201cHe didn\u2019t go to college, he barely finished high school. He was a true autodidact, but he was really learned\u201d, explains Breslin. \u201cI think in this way he found people like William Burroughs, Genet and Rimbaud to be completely influential in figuring out a way into a world where imagination and sex and visual language could all be put together.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

<\/h2>\n"},{"acf_fc_layout":"text_area","text_area":"

2. He was a true artistic polymath<\/span><\/h2>\n"},{"acf_fc_layout":"images","gallery":false,"settings":{"fit_width":"6","caption":"Americans can't deal with death, 1990. Collection of Eric Ceputis and David W. Williams."}},{"acf_fc_layout":"text_area","text_area":"

Although Wojnarowicz started out writing poetry and monologues (pulled from conversations he would record with interesting people he met on his travels), he proceeded to be skilled in an array of mediums. <\/span>History Keeps Me Awake at Night <\/span><\/i>showcases the extensiveness of Wojnarowicz\u2019 artistic talent, ranging from photography and stencils through drawing, sculpture, collage, painting and film. \u201cHe really used whatever means was necessary in order to express what he needed to do at that moment\u201d, confirms Breslin. \u201cHe wasn\u2019t wedded to any one particular medium. In some ways, the heterogeneity of his means of address really embodied his desire not to be stuck in any one rut.\u201d By shifting between mediums, Wojnarowicz was able to \u201ckeep people on their toes\u201d. For example, in the mid ’80s \u2014 when there was a resurgent interest in painting in the East Village \u2014 \u00a0Wojnarowicz abandoned the popular medium. “It was as if he was being brought into the established art world so much that he needed to find another way to feel the energy that he required to create \u2014 that\u2019s when he started to pick up the camera and Super 8,\u201d says Breslin. \u201cThe necessity to never be identified clearly as an artist was very important to him in order to maintain the status of an outsider.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n"},{"acf_fc_layout":"text_area","text_area":"

3. He collaborated on the New York arts scene<\/span><\/h2>\n"},{"acf_fc_layout":"images","gallery":false,"settings":{"fit_width":"6","caption":"Something from Sleep III (For Tom Rauffenbart) , 1989. Courtesy of the Estate of David Wojnarowicz and P.P.O.W., NY."}},{"acf_fc_layout":"text_area","text_area":"

The tumultuous cityscape of ’70s and ’80s New York forms the backbone of Wojnarowicz\u2019s work. At the time that he was working, the glossy, cosmopolitan city that we know today couldn\u2019t have been more different. As crime rattled through the streets and economic stagnation impacted the development of the city before gentrification brought about the ruination of creative sites in the early ’80s, marginalised artistic communities still flourished. The city as a blistering melting pot fuelled Wojnarowicz\u2019s work: \u201cIt allowed him to jump from a poetry scene to a punk rock music scene to a painting scene \u2014 being able to have that in one place was extremely important,\u201d says Breslin. The pulsating energy of New York at this time permitted Wojnarowicz to collaborate with the likes of Nan Goldin, Kiki Smith, Mike Bidlo and Keith Haring, long before they were the art mega stars that they are today. This sharing of ideas and collaboration was central to Wojnarowicz\u2019s world view. He was critical of the notion of America as a \u201cone tribe nation\u201d, instead believing that America was \u201ca constellation of tribes\u201d \u2014 an idea he sought to privilege in his work.<\/span><\/p>\n"},{"acf_fc_layout":"text_area","text_area":"

4. He was an impassioned portrayer of the AIDS crisis<\/span><\/h2>\n"},{"acf_fc_layout":"gallery","gallery":false,"settings":{"height":"50","images_to_show":"3","caption":"David Wojnarowicz, \u201cUntitled\u201d, 1988. Courtesy of the Whitney Museum of American Art, New York. "}},{"acf_fc_layout":"text_area","text_area":"

It is impossible to discuss the work of Wojnarowicz without detailing the impact of the AIDS crisis on his life and career. From as early as 1985\/86, Wojnarowicz was making enormous allegorical paintings depicting sperm and blood cells within larger, detailed compositions that allude to the destructive spread of the virus, such as in the painting Water<\/em> from 1987. The depth of Wojnarowicz\u2019s engagement with the crisis intensified following the death of his mentor, Peter Hujar, in 1987. \u201cWhen something like this happens with someone that close, the inevitability of death \u2026 it shook my work,\u201d Wojnarowicz said in his interview with Rose. Among the most stirring works in the exhibition is a ghostly series of three black and white photographs that document the moments directly after Hujar\u2019s passing (above). This sensitivity to the transience of life lent Wojnarowicz\u2019s work the impassioned sense of urgency that it\u2019s famous for. As the disease robbed him of his friends and lovers, Wojnarowicz \u2014 as a gay man \u2014 experienced life with a new \u201csense of pressure\u201d. \u201cMy feelings about time are different, things have much more meaning,\u201d said the artist. \u201cIt\u2019s like wanting to have beauty and live for beauty at the same time that you want to live more than anything else and want to make work that you think might get the word out,\u201d posits Breslin.<\/span><\/p>\n"},{"acf_fc_layout":"text_area","text_area":"

5. His was a singularly powerful political voice<\/span><\/h2>\n"},{"acf_fc_layout":"images","gallery":false,"settings":{"fit_width":"6","caption":"Untitled (One day this kid), 1990. Courtesy of The Estate of David Wojnarowicz and P.P.O.W Gallery, New York, NY."}},{"acf_fc_layout":"text_area","text_area":"

As much as Wojnarowicz was uniquely sensitive and attuned to the flow and flux of life, he was was also furious and enraged about how those on the edge of society were treated by those in power. According to Breslin, Wojnarowicz\u2019s fiery politics came from his \u201clove of the world and its possibilities\u201d, but that\u2019s not to say he wasn\u2019t frustrated. Wojnarowicz \u201cwas unafraid to let his anger show\u201d and possessed \u2014 what Breslin refers to as \u2014 a \u201crighteous rage\u201d with regard to how the elite refused to protect the marginalised in the wake of crisis. It is precisely for this reason that Wojnarowicz is experiencing a revival in 2018 (the Whitney exhibition coincides with an exhibition of Wojnarowicz and Hujar’s work at the Loewe Museum in Madrid<\/a>). \u201cThe urgency that you see in his early work in the ’70s through his work that dealt with the AIDS epidemic is extremely powerful now when we are living in a time where the rights of immigrants are threatened and abortion rights are up for grabs. The importance of an artist, who can make a stunning visual language to express what it\u2019s like to be on the outside in order to confront people who are on the inside with what that means, is more powerful now than ever,\u201d explains Breslin. \u201cThat\u2019s what his work was really about \u2014 not only speaking up for himself \u2014 but finding a voice for those who had not or would not be listened to.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

David Wojnarowicz: History Keeps Me Awake at Night<\/a>\u00a0curated by David Breslin and David Kiehl runs through to September 30 at the Whitney Museum of American Art.\u00a0<\/span><\/i><\/p>\n"}]},"yoast_head":"\nEverything you need to know about David Wojnarowicz, the queer artist who gave a voice to outsiders Everything you need to know about David Wojnarowicz, the queer artist who gave a voice to outsiders<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.sleek-mag.com\/de\/article\/david-wojnarowicz\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"de_DE\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Everything you need to know about David Wojnarowicz, the queer artist who gave a voice to outsiders Everything you need to know about David Wojnarowicz, the queer artist who gave a voice to outsiders\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.sleek-mag.com\/de\/article\/david-wojnarowicz\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Sleek Magazine\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:publisher\" content=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/sleekmag\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2018-07-18T09:53:05+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2018-07-24T15:29:23+00:00\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:creator\" content=\"@sleekmag\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:site\" content=\"@sleekmag\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Verfasst von\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"sleek\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.sleek-mag.com\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.sleek-mag.com\/\",\"name\":\"Sleek Magazine\",\"description\":\"Sleek is Germany\u2019s leading independent media house\/brand for creativity and innovation located in Berlin the creative capital of the world. 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