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Peter Hujar
1934-1987
1969
Gelatin silver print
sheet: 20 x 16 inches; image: 18 1/2 x 12 1/2 inches
Purchased on The Charina Endowment Fund.
2013.108:1.76
Provenance:
Peter Hujar Archive, LLC., inventory number: EPH1220-3.
Inscription:
Verso: stamp, "The Estate of Peter Hujar, Stephen Koch Executor, Printed by the Artist"; stamp, "Copyright 19_ _, The Estate of Peter Hujar, Not to be Reproduced Without Written Permission from the Estate"; stamp, "From the Estate #"; signed in pencil, "Stephen Koch"; in pencil, "480-1-14"; in pencil, "EPH 1220-3"; in pencil "Gay Liberation Poster Image, 1970"; in pencil, "HUJ 234".
Summary:
A group of young people, seen in full-length, walking towards the camera and linked arm in arm.
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© The Peter Hujar Archive / Artists Rights Society (ARS)
In late June of 1969, a police raid on the Stonewall Inn, in the West Village, inspired fierce resistance from the patrons. In the days following, Peter Hujar was on the scene as his boyfriend, Jim Fouratt, engaged in organizing for the Gay Liberation Front (GLF). In the spring of 1970, as plans developed for a march to mark the anniversary of the uprising, Hujar agreed to create an image for a recruitment poster for the group. Early one Sunday morning, GLF members assembled on Nineteenth Street west of Broadway. Hujar stood in the street and directed them to run back and forth past him while he shot three rolls of film. The resulting image resembles news coverage of an ebullient demonstration. The final poster, bearing the slogan "COME OUT!!," was to have been posted throughout the city, but nearly all copies were stolen from the car of the group member assigned to distribute them.