Links: An unknown Black man looks curiously into the camera. Beside him: A man striking a proud pose at a New York City West Side Pier, holding his well-formed penis in his hand and urinating in a wide arc. Across from them: The performance artist Richie Gallo, wearing nothing beneath a black full-body net, his head inside a leather mask, the zipper over the mouth opened.
To his left: “Discarded Rug,” an abandoned carpet artfully draped across a broad sidewalk, creating nearly Baroque folds, with the unmistakable New York metal dumpsters looming behind it.
Portraits of His Lovers
Even the first four photographs make clear how versatile Peter Hujar’s photographic work was. Yet as different as his subjects were, the shared traits become just as evident: the New Yorker of Ukrainian descent bestows dignity on the people, animals, and objects he captures; he renders their character, approaching them with unusual intimacy. Even a carpet on garbage is something Peter Hujar deems worthy of being photographed.
The exhibition “Eyes Open in the Dark” at Bonn’s Bundeskunsthalle doesn’t proceed chronologically. It concentrates especially on the 1970s and 1980s, a period when Hujar had already left advertising photography behind. During this time he focused on portraying New York’s queer community and his lovers, but he also photographed buildings or Easter celebrations in New York. He is described as a “Chronicler Against His Will” by Eva Kraus, the director of the Bundeskunsthalle, before the opening.
Iconic Images of Bruce de Sainte Croix
His photographs offer a glimpse into a time of change, joy, and suffering. After the Stonewall Riots of 1969, an unprecedented liberalization began, making queer life more visible. Yet with the AIDS epidemic, stigma increased, and an immeasurable suffering befell a generation gradually taken by infection amid an indifferent health policy.
During this time, some photographs attained iconic status: among them the portrait of Susan Sontag, which is among the best-known images of the influential intellect. Even more significant for the queer movement was the series featuring the dancer Bruce de Sainte Croix: a triptych showing the young, wiry man nude — proudly posing, kneeling on a bed and masturbating, finally seated with legs spread on a chair, his gaze fixed on his erect penis.
With a Big Toe in the Mouth or a Double Dildo in the Butt
This is a series that moves between homoeroticism and confident portraiture, demanding gay visibility while treating the photographed subjects with sensitivity. The photographs appear simple at first glance, but upon closer inspection they are finely composed and thoughtfully lit. And they demonstrate how much trust the portraits placed in Peter Hujar. Bruce de Sainte Croix, in the truest sense, makes himself free.
Peter Hujar photographed people from the front, from behind, often as a casual guest in beds, in a plastic bag, with a big toe in the mouth or a double dildo in the butt, sometimes with eyes closed: they reveal vulnerability and openness. In the exhibition catalog accompanying the show, Esther Ruelfs expands on these recurring motifs and poses, emphasizing Hujar’s classical approach: traditionally composed in a black-and-white format, psychologically intimate and humane — and politically charged.
Hujar’s Work Outlasts His Death
The emotional apex surely comes with Wojnarowicz’s photographs of Peter Hujar taken shortly after his death. Hujar died in 1987, at the age of 53, from AIDS-related pneumonia. His partner photographed him in the hospital — the triptych shows him with nearly closed eyes and a half-open mouth, as well as his hand and feet. They are moving pieces. They are not exhibited at the end of the show, but in the middle. Hujar’s work endures beyond his life, even though he gained greater recognition only after his death.
Beyond the non-chronological arrangement, the grid concept stands out. The equally sized black-and-white photographs were already arranged in a grid in Hujar’s final 1986 exhibition. That format invites unforeseen associations, surprises, and even a wink, for example when a portrait of a dog hangs next to a tree with melting snow, above it a portrait of the dancer Larry Ree — and both gazes melt in their own way.
It is remarkable and certainly no accident that both Peter Hujar and David Wojnarowicz are increasingly moving into the public consciousness: from director Ira Sachs comes the film “Peter Hujar’s Day” from last year, Wojnarowicz’s “Waterfront Journals” appeared in German for the first time in December, and in partnership with the Bonn exhibition, Hujar’s works will soon be shown at Berlin’s Gropius Bau as well.
The queer community needs a strong journalistic voice — now more than ever. Contribute to support TheColu.mn’s work.
The Character of the Grimy New York Rivers
In an era of queer liberation and the subsequent repression, they created a personal, intimate, and political body of work — one that can serve as an anchor amid the culture wars, political polarization, and social retrenchment. After all, the pandemic experiences and questions about government intervention invite comparison as well.
The remarkable exhibition “Eyes Open in the Dark” ends unexpectedly with relatively unknown works. Eight images of the Hudson River and the East River that Hujar made for a Catholic chapel hang in a somewhat separate room. It is a place of contemplation, of quiet. The visitors who might smirk at stiff penises are quite far away. The photographs of the dark water glistening in the sun and the bubbles on the waves reveal an extraordinary force here — and attest to Peter Hujar’s talent, who could even give the polluted East River its own character.
