David Wojnarowicz was born in Red Bank, New Jersey, in 1954, and first gained notice in New Yorkโs East Village art scene in the 1970s. He rose to fame for his exceptional range, intelligence, and passion, and by the 1980s had become one of the most provocative artists of his generation. In the years before his death in 1992 from AIDS-related complications, he worked tirelessly as anย AIDSย activistย and anticensorship advocate.ย
In 1985, Wojnarowicz brought his fight for freedom of expression to the case of David Wojnarowicz v. American Family Association, in which Donald E. Wildmon claimed that Wojnarowiczโs work was pornographic and undermined family values. Wojnarowicz won and was awarded a symbolic dollar.ย He was thrust back into the spotlight in 2010, at the center of a censorship battle over the National Portrait Galleryโs exhibitionย Hide/Seek: Difference and Desire in American Portraiture. In 2012, Cynthia Carrย published the critically acclaimedย biographyย Fire in the Belly: The Life and Times of David Wojnarowicz.ย