David Wojnarowicz: History Keeps Me Awake at Night at the Whitney Museum of Art lingered in my mind more than any other exhibit I saw that day. His voice was unique, and I spent the majority of my time at the Whitney trying to figure out why. Visually, his paintings are arresting, unlike anything I had seen before. His use of color, collage, and type in his works convey an immediate, strong sense of purpose to his work. Wojnarowicz’s work spanned several mediums, including writing, photography, film, and sculpture. He was a vital voice of his generation, exposing the realities of the AIDS epidemic, something that was typically kept behind closed doors and out of public view. His art can feel sincere and private, like the viewer is seeing something they aren’t meant to. It is also a political statement, exposing the truth with great importance.
Wojnarowicz was creating work from the mid 50s to the early 90s. The vast majority of his works displayed in this exhibit commented on society at the time. The AIDS epidemic was full swing, killing an unfathomable number of people, and, as a queer artist, he could shine a light into this world. His body of work subtly shifts from highly intimate to displays of public activism, as if screaming “look at this, look what is happening.” It is a public record of a historically dark time period, and also a private journal of one man’s life.
A painting that stood out to me was The Death of American Spirituality, 1987. It was created with acrylic and collage on two wood panels. It depicts a dark, terrifying scene with numerous layered symbols of destruction of society. A bull rider, pipelines, explosions, and the demonic, disembodied head of Jesus symbolize the issues of, and the disintegration of, life in the southwest. Fire, gore, and dystopian imagery are recurring motifs in his work.
His use of color portrayed a desolate landscape. Cool blues and greys juxtaposed with fiery reds and yellows are the primary color palette used in The Death of American Spirituality. Collage elements, like the newspaper clippings on the bull, strengthens the painting’s historical context. He exposed articles about politics, the white house, the IRS.
The acquisition of land and resources along with technology, leading to destruction and loss of faith is a uniquely American theme. This wide-spread carnage of faith and land can be paralleled to the AIDS epidemic, and how it destroyed many lives.
