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David Wojnarowicz Portrait Photography

American, 1954-1992

David Wojnarowicz was an author, poet, photographer, musician, filmmaker and painter whose work as an AIDS activist influenced his visionary and revolutionary art. Personal experiences of disenfranchisement and the stories of people he met living on the margins of society informed the narratives of his work, with identity, sexuality and a bristling against political structures all contributing to its visceral edge. Wojnarowicz unapologetically channeled his anger at the injustices exacted on minorities and alternative lifestyles through repressive governments and financial systems into his paintings, prints, collages and photography.

Wojnarowicz was born in Red Bank, New Jersey, in 1954. He had a tumultuous childhood, dropping out of high school and living on the streets by the time he was 16. He spent much of his youth hitchhiking, spending time in San Francisco and then Paris.

Wojnarowicz moved to New York’s East Village in 1978, where he began exhibiting his art, which he frequently made from found materials. He became a central figure in the culture wars of the 1980s and 1990s, refusing to censor his work, which often forthrightly reflected his queer sexuality and his fury at the conservative establishment. Particularly after the death of his lover Peter Hujar in 1987, he concentrated on the government’s political inaction during the AIDS crisis. As he wrote in his 1991 memoir, Close to the Knives, “To make the private into something public is an action that has terrific repercussions.”

Wojnarowicz died in 1992 from complications due to AIDS. His art is in major collections around the world, including the Museum of Modern Art, the Metropolitan Museum of Art, the Tate Modern and the Leslie-Lohman Museum of Art, which has championed LGBTQ+ artists such as Wojnarowicz for decades. In 2018, the Whitney Museum of American Art in New York held a retrospective of his work. 

Find David Wojnarowicz mixed media works, paintings, photography and other art on 1stDibs.

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Artist: David Wojnarowicz
Rimbaud in New York
Rimbaud in New York

Rimbaud in New York

By David Wojnarowicz

Located in New York, NY

Gelatin silver print (Edition of 6) Estate stamped in black ink, verso Also initialed "TWR" and numbered in pencil, verso This artwork is offered by ClampArt, located in New York...

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1970s Other Art Style David Wojnarowicz Portrait Photography

Materials

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David Wojnarowicz portrait photography for sale on 1stDibs.

Find a wide variety of authentic David Wojnarowicz portrait photography available for sale on 1stDibs. You can also browse by medium to find art by David Wojnarowicz in silver gelatin print and more. Not every interior allows for large David Wojnarowicz portrait photography, so small editions measuring 10 inches across are available. Customers who are interested in this artist might also find the work of Bill Owens, Al Satterwhite, and Jeffrey Silverthorne.