Friday 18 March 2011

Twofold


Divine

In quiet, black and white portraits, Peter Hujar captures his subjects in moments of reverie. This one shows Divine, a famously foul-mouthed drag queen, usually seen wearing a blonde wig, sequined dress, and garish make-up. In Hujar’s portrait, the public persona is stripped away. Divine appears as a man, wrinkled and balding, resting on a velvety black blanket and gazing into the distance. His half-closed eyes suggest he is on the borderline between dream and sleep... - Whitney Museum of American  Art





Now playing: Divine - I'm So Beautiful

6 comments:

Jill said...

Or Valium...

Christina @ Fashion's Most Wanted said...

It's a fabulous picture. I must check out more of his work xx

HOBAC said...

Christina - the cover of I Am A Bird Now by Antony & The Johnsons is Hujar's portrait of Candy Darling on her deathbed.

Benjamin said...

While you are looking at Hujar and Wojnarowicz, you must not forget to examine the AMAZING work of Paul Thek, also a lover of Hujar. In fact, Thek made a series of wax sculptures called, Technological Reliquaries, after a trip he and Hujar took to the catacombs of Sicily.
http://whitney.org/Exhibitions/PaulThek/Images

Pigtown*Design said...

LOVE Divine!

HOBAC said...

PD - one of my heroes.