The Princeton University Art Museum holds four photographs from David Wojnarowicz’s “Sex Series,” 1988–89, in its collection.
“In this group of photomontages,” Princeton’s curators write, “Wojnarowicz printed negative images of powerful natural and man-made forces, here a tornado and a bridge, and overlaid them with text from newspapers or his own poetry and superimposed circular peepholes that afford glimpses of intimate scenes, such as pornographic vignettes and microscopic blood cells.
“The Sex Series documents how dominant American culture marginalized homosexuality and the devastation wrought by AIDS, from which the artist succumbed in 1992. Yet in expressing the anxieties that permeated the gay community and making them both personal and universal, Wojnarowicz ensured that his own experiences would not be erased from cultural memory.”
The museum’s collection also includes four portraits of David by his friend and mentor, the photographer Peter Hujar.
The Princeton University
Princeton, NJ 08544
artmuseum.princeton.edu