Peter Hujar – A retrospective (1994)

Peter Hujar, a New Yorker of Ukrainian descent, died of AIDS in 1987. He recorded the world in astonishing portraits of cows, sheep, and geese in the country, dogs in the studio, the sea, the city, and above all his fellow human beings, many of whom have since won fame: Susan Sontag, John Waters, Divine, William S. Borroughs, Candy Darling, Robert Wilson, David Wojnarowicz, Paul Thek, and many men, in the nude, half-dressed, sleeping, posing, tumescent. People, animals, landscapes – Peter Hujar approached them all with great respect and a perfect sense of balance between near and far. His subjects face us with supremely dignified singularity, with loneliness at times, and at times in an aura of dauntless and “splendid isolation.” PETER HUJAR (1934 – 1987) was an outsider in more ways than one. One of those artists or photographers who pursue their ideas even though they are diametrically opposed to the thoughts and spirit of their times. He was interested in only one thing – in the one thing standing, lying, sitting, growing, jumping in front of him: man, woman, shoe, horse, water. With uncanny but perfectly undramatic concentration on this one subject, almost always in the singular, he was apparently seeking out essences, not in the sense of personal traits but rather as elements intrinsic to contemporary existence: the void time, boredom, transformation, presence. Yes, presence. The unbelievably direct gaze of his animals as they look at us. The undeniable presence of a man, lying down, not even facing us frontally in the space of the picture. Scalo, 1994. 240 x 300. Hardcover with dustcover, 207 pages. ISBN: 978-1881616351 First edition, English version. Condition: Very good, a bit wear to corners.