Queere Heilige, große Egos
Andrew Durbin's new biography examines the intertwined lives of artists Peter Hujar and Paul Thek, focusing on their art, desire, and self-staging. The review notes that while the book covers their creative circles—including figures like David Wojnarowicz, Divine, John Waters, and Susan Sontag—it loses sight of the urgent political and social context that animated their work, particularly the AIDS crisis and Reagan-era repression.
This matters because Hujar and Thek are pivotal figures in late 20th-century American art, yet their legacies are often overshadowed by more famous peers. Durbin's biography risks reducing their radical, queer art to mere biography, missing the chance to connect their personal narratives to the broader cultural and political struggles that gave their work its power. The review underscores the ongoing challenge of writing about queer artists without diluting the urgency of their historical moment.