Untitled (David Wojnarowicz), 1984. Verso dye bleach transfer, 10 1/2 x 10 1/2 ins.
“If I Could Attach Our Blood Vessels I Would: The Work of David Wojnarowicz and Peter Hujar,” P.P.O.W’s presentation at Paris+ par Art Basel, documents through photographs, video, painting, and sculpture the inextricable connectedness between the works of Peter Hujar (1934-1987) and David Wojnarowicz (1954 – 1992).
Correcting the often-cited misconception about their relationship as being solely or primarily “lovers”, the presentation will demonstrate their close friendship and influence on each other’s artwork throughout the 1980s.
Twenty years his senior and already well-recognized in both the Uptown and Downtown New York art worlds, Hujar galvanized Wojnarowicz’s identification as an artist and specifically encouraged him to paint. Works document Hujar’s early influence, seen in Wojnarowicz’s stencils and works within Pier 34, and can eventually be traced to his most important works about HIV/AIDS from the late-1980s and early 1990s.
Wojnarowicz wrote extensively about Hujar’s death and famously documented him on his hospital deathbed. Wojnarowicz’s last two shows, both presented at P.P.O.W, were complicated by his own HIV+ diagnosis and were a memorial to his friend, Hujar, as well as a response to a “sick society”. The title of our Paris+ presentation is excerpted from Wojnarowicz’s text and image work When I Put My Hands on Your Body, 1990, which was exhibited that same year in his final exhibition, In the Garden.
