David Wojnarowicz (1954 - 1992) was a painter, photographer, writer, filmmaker, performance artist, and activist who was prominent in the New York City art world of the 1980s. He was born on September 14, 1954 in Redbank, 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: Three Teens Kill 4- No Motive , 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 won a libel case with Donald Wildmon and the American Family Association on the grounds that Wojnarowicz's work been had copied and distorted with the intent to defame him. He died of AIDS on July 22, 1992.

Books

• Close to the Knives: A Memoir of Disintegration. (1991). Vintage Books.
• The Waterfront Journals. (1997). Grove/Atlantic.

Critical studies and adaptations

• 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.

External links

• David Wojnarowicz by Dan Cameron and Dennis Szakacs
• David Wojnarowicz Reading
• David Wojnarowicz Papers at Fales Library, New York University.