Virginia Hourigan, Anita Vitale, Gracie Mansion, Jean Foos, Judy Glantzman, and Cynthia Carr creating a quilt honoring their good friend David Wojnarowicz
Leading up to the thirtieth anniversary of David Wojnarowicz’s death, seven close friends of David and his partner, Tom Rauffenbart, joined forces to create quilts honoring them.
Quilters include Virginia Hourigan (retired social worker), Anita Vitale (founder of The David Wojnarowicz Foundation), Gracie Mansion (David’s gallerist in the 1980s), artists Jean Foos and Judy Glantzman (friends and collaborators), and Cynthia Carr (David’s biographer)
Together they designed and produced David’s panel to remember him as “Artist, Activist, Friend” while featuring his 1988-89 painting “Something from Sleep IV (Dream)” which suggests his feelings of alienation and impending extinction.
Other images include: Judy Glantzman portraits of David and Tom; a Dirk Rowntree photo of David with photographer Peter Hujar on a Hudson River pier; as well as beloved details from several of David’s art works.
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Tom Rauffenbart in Mexico
The quilt for Tom Rauffenbart remembers him as “Best Friend Ever” and features David’s 1989 painting “Something from Sleep III (For Tom Rauffenbart)” in which an outline of Tom contains an entire galaxy.
Ms. Vitale explains, David and Tom’s relationship was “immediate, passionate, and intense. Tom had found the love of his life and David found a home in Tom, a respite from the pressures of his growing artistic practice.”
Other imagery includes Judy Glantzman portraits of Tom as well as snapshots of Tom and friends living and loving life.
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NAMES Project AIDS Memorial Quilt panel including David Wojnarowicz’s tribute to Peter Hujar
David himself contributed panels to the AIDS Memorial Quilt to honor his friend Keith Davis and, later, his mentor, the photographer Peter Hujar. Both died of AIDS-related illnesses in 1987.
“Everything I made, I made for Peter,” David once said. His panel includes Peter’s favorite image– a bird’s wing also seen in David’s 1987 painting “Wind (for Peter Hujar).”
On September 14, 2022, David’s 68th birthday, the two quilt panels honoring David and Tom were donated to the AIDS Memorial Quilt project.
In March of 2025, The Foundation donated fabric from the collection of Tom Rauffenbart to AIDS Memorial quilt-making workshops organized by the New York City AIDS Memorial.
The fabric was used to create new panels honoring the lives of creative New Yorkers. Led by artist Daniele Frazier, the free and open-to-the-public workshops accompanied the exhibitions TO LOVE–TO DIE; TO FIGHT. TO LIVE: Art and Activism in the Time of AIDS and WITNESS at the School of Visual Arts.
