THIS IS THE DIARY JUNCTION - DATA AND LINKS FOR OVER 500 HISTORICAL AND LITERARY DIARISTS
PLEASE TAKE A MOMENT ALSO TO LOOK AT KIP FENN, A MAJOR NOVEL ABOUT THE 21st CENTURY
- freely available on this site
Wojnarowicz, David ___ 1955-1992 ___
American ___ painter
BIOGRAPHICAL SUMMARY
David Wojnarowicz was born in Redbank,
New Jersey. After his parents divorced, he was moved around among various
relations until settling with his mother in New York, where he attended
the High School of Performing Arts for a brief period. He dropped out in
the early 1970s, living on the streets and then working as a farmer. After
returning to New York he shot a short film in abandoned properties and called
it 'Heroin'. He took photographs, he effected stencil work, and he played
in a band. By the early 80s, he was exhibiting in two well-known East Village
galleries. In 1983, he met the photographer Peter Hujar, and they remained
close friends until the latter died in 1988. In 1985, Wojnarowicz held a
major exhibition at the Institute of Contemporary Art at the University
of Pennsylvania in Philadelphia. He was invited to participate in the 1987
and 1991 Whitney Biennials. In the early 90s, Wojnarowicz won a celebrated
libel case against Donald Wildmon and the American Family Association but
was awarded damages of just one dollar. He contracted AIDS and, subsequently,
used his position and his art to express anger at the tragedy and injustices
of the epidemic. In parallel with his artistic work (which included sculpture,
photography, performance art, painting, collage, drawing), Wojnarowicz was
also an effective writer, and often combined art and words.
One
biography link
DIARY DATES, CONTENT DESCRIPTORS
1971-1990 ___ love/sex art self
health people creativity
WEB TEXT LINKS
about
the diaries
ORIGINAL MANUSCRIPT LINKS
Fales
Library, New York University
SOME PUBLISHED TITLES
In the Shadow of the American Dream:
The Diaries of David Wojnarowicz
May 2005
THIS IS THE DIARY JUNCTION - DATA AND LINKS FOR OVER 500 HISTORICAL AND LITERARY DIARISTS
Please
email if you have any corrections, additions or comments. |
IMPORTANT NOTES AND CAUTIONS:
1) The first line of basic information
may be incomplete in several ways: some historical figures have different
names (titles, pen-names); their birth and death dates may be unknown or
uncertain (g - guess, c - circa); similarly, their occupations may be unknown,
or they may have had other jobs; and, for early diarists, I've used 'British'
a bit too freely. 2) The biographical summary may not be accurate. It was
compiled quickly from various sources, mostly on the internet, and the facts
were not checked anywhere near as rigorously as they would have been if
they'd been intended for publication in a printed form. 3) The journal dates
and descriptors (which are in no particular order) must be treated with
caution: since I have not examined the diaries myself, the descriptors are
only guesses based on bibliographies, anthologies and internet biographies.
4) For the biography and etext links, I have ignored any sites with charges,
and I have avoided, wherever possible, those with pop-ups or too much advertising.
I have limited myself to providing three etext links where there is some
variety between them. 5) For the original manuscript links, I have limited
myself to providing a maximum of two (although, for a few diarists, their
original diaries are held in more than two places). 6) I have provided the
titles - chosen randomly - for up to three printed editions of the diaries. |