1. David Wojnarowicz incorporated personal narratives influenced by his struggle with AIDS as well as his political activism in his art until his death from the disease in 1992.
17 Facts About David Wojnarowicz
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David Wojnarowicz made autonomous super-8 films such as Heroin and Beautiful People with bandmate Jesse Hultberg, and collaborated with filmmakers Richard Kern and Tommy Turner of the Cinema of Transgression.
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David Wojnarowicz exhibited his work in well-known East Village galleries and New York City landmarks, notably Civilian Warfare Gallery, Ground Zero Gallery NY, Public Illumination Picture Gallery, Gracie Mansion Gallery, and Hal Bromm Gallery.
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David Wojnarowicz was connected to other prolific artists of the time, appearing in or collaborating on works with Nan Goldin, Peter Hujar, Luis Frangella, Karen Finley, Kiki Smith, James Romberger, Marguerite Van Cook, Ben Neill, Marion Scemama, and Phil Zwickler.
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In early 1981, David Wojnarowicz met the photographer Peter Hujar, and after a brief period as lovers, came to see Hujar as his great friend and mentor.
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Weeks after Hujar died of AIDS on November 26,1987, David Wojnarowicz moved into his loft at 189 2nd Avenue.
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David Wojnarowicz was diagnosed with AIDS himself and, after successfully fighting the landlord to keep the lease, lived the last five years of his life in Hujar's loft.
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Hujar's death moved David Wojnarowicz to create much more explicit activism and political content, notably about the social and legal injustices related to the government response to the AIDS epidemic.
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David Wojnarowicz collaborated with video artist Tom Rubnitz on the short film Listen to This, a critique of the Reagan and Bush administrations' homophobic responses and failure to address the crisis.
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In 1985, David Wojnarowicz was included in the Whitney Biennial's so-called Graffiti Show.
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David Wojnarowicz wrote two memoirs in his lifetime including Close to the Knives: A Memoir of Disintegration, discussing topics such as his troubled childhood, becoming a renowned artist in New York City, and his AIDS diagnosis and Memories that Smell like Gasoline.
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In 1989, David Wojnarowicz appeared in Rosa von Praunheim's widely acclaimed film Silence = Death about gay artists in New York City fighting for the rights of AIDS sufferers.
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David Wojnarowicz died at home in Manhattan on July 22,1992, at the age of 37, from what his boyfriend Tom Rauffenbart confirmed was AIDS.
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David Wojnarowicz's weapon was threatening to disrupt the already pitiful federal support for the arts, and , that same weapon is being brandished, and we cower.
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In 2018, the Whitney Museum of American Art hosted a major retrospective, David Wojnarowicz: History Keeps Me Awake at Night, which was co-curated by the Whitney's David Kiehl and art historian David Breslin.
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In 1992, the band U2 used David Wojnarowicz's tumbling buffalo photograph "Untitled " for the cover art of its single "One".
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The David Wojnarowicz Papers are at the Fales Library at New York University.