David Wojnarowicz
Gelatin silver print
37,5 × 37,5 cm
Peter Hujar, legendary photographer of the subcultures of downtown Manhattan in the 1970s and 1980s, immortalises the artist David Wonarowicz - 20 years his junior - in a burst of light. Together, they were to share a love story as fleeting as it was intense against the backdrop of the AIDS crisis. Their identities converge in this portrait in spite of different sensibilities: the conventional composition and the precision of Hujar's print capture the melancholic, rebellious and committed personality of the young Wojnarowicz, presenting a masterpiece of chiaroscuro portraiture.
Courtesy de Pinault Collection.
Photo : Florent Michel / 11H45.
View of the exhibition "Les yeux dans les yeux. Portraits de la Collection Pinault", Couvent des Jacobins, Rennes.