Renowned American photographer Peter Hujar (1934-1987) began his career in the 1950s as a commercial photographer but eventually became a part of the group of artists, poets, and musicians who formed New York’s underground art scene in the 1970s and 80s. His portraits of the often extravagant individuals who were a part of the extreme art and nightlife world in Manhattan, as well as his photos of animals and landscapes, are characterized by a meticulous approach and simple composition. The Hague’s Fotomuseum, in collaboration with The Morgan Library & Museum in New York and Fundación MAPFRE in Madrid, presents a large retrospective of over one hundred vintage photographic works created by Peter Hujar from the mid-1950s until his untimely death in 1987.
According to Nan Goldin, Peter Hujar should have enjoyed the same fame as his younger colleague and style companion, Robert Mapplethorpe (1946-1989). However, Mapplethorpe was fixated on outer beauty, fame, sensation, shock, and self-promotion, while Hujar was more focused on character, experience, and the mental universe of his subjects, whom he often photographed in intimate situations. Mapplethorpe’s commercial instincts were much stronger than Hujar’s. Many testimonies describe Hujar as a difficult man, and renowned photography critic Vince Aletti – also one of his closest friends – said, “He could never sell himself”. Despite his aversion to commercialism and frequent conflicts with major galleries, Hujar continued to fight for wider recognition of his work throughout his life.
www.ftn-books.com has theFotomuseum invitation now available.
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