At an opening at the Morgan Library & Museum celebrating exhibitions of Peter Hujar’s photographs and Tennessee Williams’ memorabilia, a gentleman in a maroon jacket marveled that the Morgan, known for collections of old master drawings and manuscripts would now show photography, especially of the type created by Hujar. While Williams’ scripts and Playbills form the kind of closeted history right up the Morgan’s proverbial alley, well, Hujar’s work is something else. A decade older than Robert Mapplethorpe and Nan Goldin, Hujar too documented the downtown demimonde, its denizen in drag. Hujar’s portraits—black & white– haunt, testament to the era before AIDS, a vibrant artistic world in the autumn of life.

See the pretty blond to the right as you enter. It’s Cookie Mueller, writer/actress best known for her performances in early John Waters’ films such as Pink Flamingos and Desperate Living. A reclining Charles Ludlum, playwright and founder of the Theater of the Ridiculous. Not everyone died of AIDS: a dolled upCandy Darling posing theatrically on her deathbed; a handsome Brion Gysin on one wall, and an elegant William Burroughs sporting a Moroccan vest under tweed on another. And then there are the twin towers in one of Hujar’s cityscapes. Curated by Joel Smith, the exhibition establishes Hujar as a master of shooting his subjects as if in repose, propped aslant.

Peter Hujar had a significant relationship with David Wojnarowicz, a younger artist, dead of AIDS by 1992, to be featured in a show this summer at the Whitney. William Burroughs once told me about fame: it comes if you stick around long enough. In the case of these important artists, he must have meant only the work.

Regina Weinreich

Graphic Design: Salpeter Ventura