Denver Art Museum has one Gelatin silver print in its collection by David Wojnarowicz: “Untitled (Face in Dirt),” 1990—David’s last self-portrait printed posthumously in 1992-93.
The image was the evolution of a dream David recorded in his journal on December 11, 1979: “They’ve buried me in the coarse brown earth, all the way up to my teeth; somehow the mouth must be opened wide so that fillings of dirt spread within the jaw, over the white porcelain teeth, leaving one tooth exposed down to the gum.”
He made the image (with the help of artist Marion Scemama) while exploring the desert of Chaco Canyon, New Mexico, two years before he died of AIDS in 1992.
It remains an iconic image of the AIDS crisis.
Denver Art Museum
100 W 14th Ave. Pkwy.
Denver, Colorado
