David Wojnarowicz is a whole bag of tricks to say the least.

Wojnarowicz was a crazy outcast, yet his temperament and artistic prowess could not be overlooked by the art establishments, and to this day, he remains one of the most vivacious social activists to have touched art world. Plus, how could you forget a dude that is nuts enough to have his own mouth sewn shut??

Wojnarowicz took the idea of the “tortured artist” to a whole new level. I mean, the man first gained notoriety for his sketches of burning buildings and figures falling to their death for Pete’s sake. We can definitely confirm that his darkly surreal art and demeanor was legit and not just a charade to raise eyebrows and gain notoriety. Wojnarowicz was a child of abuse turned teenage street hustler, performing sex acts for money. He claims his favorite hustling line was, “I need money for art supplies.” Definitely a man dedicated to his craft. At a young age, he chose to run away from home and live on the streets where he was so malnourished that he had hallucinations of rats carrying body parts in their mouths.

Pretty crazy to strike it on your own when you have nothing, yet an understandable move considering his dad was pretty much bats**t insane. His father was such an angry alcoholic that he once fed his children their pet rabbit for dinner, claiming it was lamb. We can only hope he served it with a side of mint jelly. Needless to say, his mother divorced him, but that did not keep his malevolence away from the youngsters. He once kidnapped Wojnarowicz and his siblings and hid them in rural Michigan. Upon getting her children back, their mother raised them in the then very sketchy neighborhood of Hell’s Kitchen in Manhattan.   

As he got older, he began spending time in rundown warehouses and piers on the far West Side of Manhattan, where he went for anonymous gay sex but also to paint on the walls. He once told a friend of his warehouse refuge of art and debaucher, “This is the real MoMA.” Can’t imagine the upper East Side patrons of the world renowned museum would agree, but hey, whatever.

He also disdained the art world and always kept his distance. Whenever a certain type of work would do well, he would stop making it. Art world professionals often learned the hard way when they would take an interest in the artist. Once he dumped a pile of rotting cow bones outside the Leo Castelli Gallery. It was always better not to upset David, for he had a bit of a temperament. Once, when a gallery damaged some of his work, he showed up with a tire iron and smashed holes in their walls. No wonder artists have the reputation of being hard to work with!

I am sure it comes as no surprise that Wojnarowicz was the cause of much controversy in the art world as well. When his video A Fire in my Belly was included in an exhibition of gay portraiture at the Smithsonian's National Portrait Gallery in 2010, the Catholic League as well as members of congress pretty much lost it. Many religious and right-wing folks saw the work as hate speech, and after much protesting, they proposed that the Smithsonian have their funding reduced. The National Portrait Gallery quickly pulled the work from the exhibition in an attempt to calm the turbulent waters, but we can only imagine what Wojnarowicz would have done if he was alive to see this one.  

You may find his work repulsive and blasphemous, but you really have to give it to him, for even through a life of pain and depravity he manage to maintain an interesting sense of humor. Upon learning that he was HIV positive, he asked his doctor to tell him when his T-cell count was low enough that he could give them all names. Sure it's a dark sense of humor, but I would expect nothing less from Wojnarowicz. Sadly, he only lived a short while longer after his diagnosis, and once cremated, his partner scattered his ashes in some of his favorite places, and ended finally by throwing the last of his ashes on the White House lawn. Even in death, Wojnarowicz managed to ruffle feathers and stick it to the man. I think it is safe to say that it is people like him who give the art world its reputation for being unapologetically offensive and raw. A man after our own hearts.