With the loss of David Wojnarowicz, the world is a much lonelier place. His childhood and teenage years were some kind of nightmarish perversion of the American Dream, but out of great pain he created brilliant art and literature. The work he left behind, though, doesn’t begin to replace the person who is gone. Wojnarowicz fought hard for life. And even in his last year, in and out of that ninth circle of hell called a hospital ward, and in terrible pain, he always made me laugh. He gave me the words for all I’ve seen and felt. He will be sorely missed by his lover, his friends, – and the community he so inspired.
Nan Goldin, photographer
David Wojnarowicz had become a much-heralded artist and a cultural hero by the time he died in 1992 at age 38. A vocal artist-agitator on behalf of people with AIDS, he also fought conservative attacks on the National Endowment for the Arts. He was born in 1954 in Redbank, New Jersey, had a high-school education, and spent ten years as a hustler on the streets of New York City. He began exhibiting his work in 1980, and in 1985 and 1991 he was included in the Whitney Museum’s prestigious Biennial exhibitions.
