David Wojnarowicz
David Wojnarowicz (
September 14,
1954 -
July 22,
1992) was a
gay painter,
photographer,
writer,
filmmaker,
performance artist, and
activist who was prominent in the
New York City art world of the
1980s. He was born in
Red Bank, New Jersey, and later lived with his mother in New York City, where he attended the
High School of Performing Arts for a brief period. From 1970 until 1973, after dropping out of school, he for a time lived on the streets of New York City and worked as a farmer on the Canadian border. Upon returning to New York City, he saw a particularly prolific period for his artwork from the late 1970's through the 1980's. During this period, he made
super-8 films, such as
Heroin, began a photographic series of
Arthur Rimbaud, did stencil work, played in a band called:
3 Teens Kill 4, and exhibited his work in well-known
East Village galleries. In 1985, he was included in the
Whitney Biennial, the so-called
Graffiti Show. In the 1990's, he fought and was issued an injunction against
Donald Wildmon and the
American Family Association on the grounds that Wojnarowicz's work been had copied and distorted in violation of the New York Artists' Authorship Rights Act. See
Wojnarowicz v. American Family Association, 745 F.Supp 130 (1990). Wojnarowicz died of
AIDS on
July 22,
1992.
*
Close to the Knives: A Memoir of Disintegration. (1991). Vintage Books.
*
Tongues Of Flame*
Memories That Smell Like Gasoline. *
The Waterfront Journals. (1997). Grove/Atlantic.
*
Rimbaud In New York 1978 - 1979. (with Andrew Roth)
*
In the Shadow of the American Dream: The Diaries of David Wojnarowicz (Amy Scholder, editor)
*
Willie World (illustrator; written by Maggie J. Dubris)
*
Postcards From America - a non-linear biography of David Wojnarowicz (Steve McLean, director)
*
David Wojnarowicz: Brush Fires in the Social Landscape. (1995). Aperture.
* Wojnarowicz, David, Romberger, James, and Van Cook, Marguerite.
Seven Miles a Second. (1996). DC Comics.
(Autobiographical comic book partly scripted by Wojnarowicz, partly adapted posthumously from his diaries.)* Wojnarowicz, David, et al., ed. Amy Scholder.
Fever: The Art of David Wojnarowicz. (1999). New Museum Books.
*
David Wojnarowicz by Dan Cameron and Dennis Szakacs*
David Wojnarowicz Reading*
David Wojnarowicz Papers at Fales Library, New York University.
