Peter Hujar était une figure de proue de la scène new-yorkaise du centre-ville des années 70 et 80. Il est surtout connu pour ses portraits d’artistes, musiciens, écrivains et interprètes de la ville de New York, qui présentent des personnages tels que Susan Sontag, William S.Burroughs, David Wojnarowicz et Andy Warhol, et a été admiré pour son attitude totalement intransigeante envers le travail et la vie. Hujar était un technicien accompli, et ses portraits de personnes, d’animaux et de paysages, ainsi que sa documentation sur l’épidémie de VIH / sida, avec ses exquises tonalités en noir et blanc, étaient extrêmement influents.
Sous-estimé de son vivant, Hujar est maintenant une icône vénérée de la scène artistique perdue du centre-ville, et ses photographies sont conservées dans des collections permanentes à travers le monde.
Plus de 160 photographies sont rassemblées dans Peter Hujar: Speed ??of Life. Publiée parallèlement à une grande exposition itinérante, cette collection présente le célèbre portrait de Hujar ainsi que ses projets moins connus. Accompagnée de textes de Philip Gefter, Steve Turtell et Joel Smith, cette enquête fournit une histoire approfondie de la vie et de la pratique artistique de Hujar.
Peter Hujar was a leading figure of the downtown New York scene of the 1970s and ’80s. He is most well-known for his portraits of New York City’s artists, musicians, writers, and performers, which feature characters such as Susan Sontag, William S. Burroughs, David Wojnarowicz, and Andy Warhol, and was admired for his completely uncompromising attitude toward work and life. Hujar was a consummate technician, and his portraits of people, animals, and landscapes, as well as his documentation of the HIV/AIDS epidemic, with its exquisite black-and-white tonalities, were extremely influential. Underappreciated during his lifetime, Hujar is now a revered icon of the lost downtown art scene, and his photographs are held in permanent collections around the world. Over 160 photographs are gathered in Peter Hujar: Speed of Life. Published alongside a major touring exhibition, this collection presents Hujar’s famous portraiture as well as his lesser-known projects. Accompanied by texts by Philip Gefter, Steve Turtell, and Joel Smith, this survey provides a thorough history of Hujar’s life and artistic practice.
Text by Philip Gefter, Joel Smith, and Steve Turtell. Contributions by Martha Scott Burton.
Peter Hujar died of AIDS in 1987, leaving behind a complex and profound body of photographs. A leading figure in the cultural scene in downtown New York in the 1970s and ’80s, Hujar was admired for his portraits of people, animals, and landscapes. Since his death his work has been the subject of major retrospectives at the Stedelijk Museum in Amsterdam and the Fotomuseum Winterthur in Switzerland, and he is included in permanent collections at the Museum of Modern Art, New York; Whitney Museum of American Art, New York; the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston; and the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, among others.
