Peter Hujar

Peter Hujar, Ukrainian New Yorker, died of AIDS in 1987 at the age of 53. Prior to his death he portrayed the world: surprisingly, cows, sheep, geese in the countryside, dogs in the studio, the sea, the city, but above all his fellow humans – some famous names today, like Susan Sontag, Paul Thek, Andy Warhol, William Burroughs, Ann Wilson, Robert Wilson, David Wojnarowicz, John Waters, Divine – and many men, naked, half-naked, sleeping, posing, aroused. People, animals, or landscapes – Peter Hujar approached the world with great respect, with a precise feeling for the balance between nearness and distance, and he showed every being in its absolute, dignified singularity, in its sometimes lonely, sometimes wonderful “splendid isolation”.

With around 150 photographs, this exhibition offers the first comprehensive retrospective of his work.

The exhibition was curated by Urs Stahel and Hripsimé Visser. A collaboration with the Stedelijk Museum, Amsterdam, and the Kunstmuseum Wolfsburg.