For decades, the legacies of Peter Hujar and Paul Thek were often viewed through a singular, devastating lens: the AIDS crisis. Because both artists died from complications of the disease—Hujar in 1987 and Thek in 1988—their creative output was frequently read as a prelude to tragedy. However, a new effort in literary and artistic recovery is shifting that narrative, centering not on how they died, but on the extraordinary lives they led and the groundbreaking gay art of Peter Hujar and Paul Thek.
This reclamation is anchored by Andrew Durbin, editor-in-chief of Frieze Magazine, who spent nearly five years documenting their intersection in the dual biography The Wonderful World That Almost Was. The work serves as a vital piece of queer history, racing against time to interview surviving witnesses and executors before the memories of a lost generation vanish entirely. Durbin’s objective is clear: to prove that these men were not merely “twilight figures” of a plague, but architects of a bold, urban bohemia.
The resurgence of their work is already manifesting across contemporary culture. Hujar’s presence has returned via Ben Whishaw in Ira Sachs’s 2025 film, Peter Hujar’s Day, and his haunting imagery has graced the covers of Hanya Yanagihara’s A Little Life and an album by Anohni and the Johnsons. While Paul Thek’s recognition has been slower—largely because his most ambitious European installations were ephemeral and eventually lost—experts suggest his moment of critical reckoning is arriving.
A Love Story Born in the Lower East Side
The connection between Hujar and Thek began in the mid-1950s in Coral Gables, Florida, where Hujar first photographed Thek when both were in their early 20s. By 1960, the two had turn into neighbors and lovers on Manhattan’s Lower East Side, embedded in a New York City that allowed for a level of artistic experimentation and social fluidity that Durbin notes is nearly impossible to replicate in the modern era.
Thek was described as a magnetic, playful figure—a quality that drew in luminaries like Tennessee Williams and Gore Vidal. Their relationship was defined by an intense, often messy intimacy, captured in fragments like a postcard Thek sent to Hujar from Fire Island, featuring a circled figure on a crowded beach with the caption: “A photograph of happy persons, except me, I am seen looking everywhere for you.”
This bond was not only romantic but deeply intellectual and creative. Their shared curiosity often led them to the fringes of the permissible. In 1963, while visiting Sicily, they entered the Capuchin Catacombs of Palermo. Despite a ban on photography, Hujar documented the site. During the visit, Thek reportedly handled a piece of dried human remains, later reflecting in a 1966 Artnews interview that he felt “strangely relieved and free,” delighted that bodies could be used as room decoration “like flowers.”
From Catacombs to ‘Meat Pieces’
The experience in Sicily became a catalyst for both men. For Hujar, the photographs eventually formed Portraits in Life and Death (1976), the only book he published during his lifetime. For Thek, the encounter seeded his “meat pieces”—unsettling sculptures of wax flesh housed in glass-and-metal cases that mimicked Christian reliquaries. These works catapulted Thek into the spotlight as a provocative star of the art world.
Despite their success, both artists harbored a profound resistance to being categorized or “fixed” in place. Thek frequently destroyed his own work or intentionally misdated paintings to disrupt the commercial art market. Hujar, meanwhile, fought against being labeled strictly as a “gay photographer,” fearing that such a designation would relegate his work to a subcategory ignored by major museums. To protect his broader ambitions, he often released erotic images of male subjects, such as David Wojnarowicz, under the anagram alias “Jute Harper.”
Even with these hesitations, Hujar’s lens remained a primary record of the queer avant-garde. He captured the essence of figures like Candy Darling, Susan Sontag, Fran Lebowitz, Jackie Curtis, and John Waters, documenting a community that was as fragile as it was fearless.
Combatting the ‘Second Erasure’
The loss of Hujar and Thek was compounded by what Durbin describes as a “second erasure.” During the height of the AIDS epidemic, many families stripped the queerness from their children’s records, claiming they died of other illnesses. This resulted in the scattering or intentional destruction of countless art collections.
The recovery of Hujar and Thek’s history is a direct challenge to this erasure. By focusing the narrative of The Wonderful World That Almost Was on the years between 1954 and 1975, Durbin restores the agency of the artists, moving their deaths to the epilogue. This structural choice emphasizes their productivity and passion over their pathology.
| Period/Year | Event/Development |
|---|---|
| Mid-1950s | Hujar first photographs Thek in Coral Gables, Florida. |
| 1960 | The pair become neighbors and lovers in Manhattan’s Lower East Side. |
| 1963 | Visit to Palermo’s Capuchin Catacombs; catalyst for “meat pieces” and Portraits in Life and Death. |
| 1975 | Final photo sessions between Hujar and Thek as their relationship fractures. |
| 1987–1988 | Hujar and Thek die within a year of each other from AIDS complications. |
The Legacy of ‘I Was Here Too’
The current cultural reckoning is moving toward institutional permanence. In New York, the Museum of Modern Art (MoMA) has hosted screening series, and Galerie Buchholz has organized exhibitions of Thek’s work. Noah Khoshbin, president of the Paul Thek Foundation, notes the significance of this shift, pointing out that Thek did not have a single work in an American institution at the time of his death.
For those who grew up in the wake of the epidemic, this recovery provides a necessary blueprint. It offers proof that queer artists can exist and thrive outside the boundaries of traditional categories. As Thek wrote to Hujar in 1975, the ultimate goal was simply to add their names to the record—to be able to say, “I WAS HERE TOO!”
The ongoing effort to preserve this history continues with a series of upcoming events. The exhibit Peter Hujar/Liz Deschenes: Persistence of Vision is currently showing at Gropius Bau in Berlin through August 23, while further major exhibitions for Paul Thek are planned for the Watermill Center later this year. These milestones ensure that the “wonderful world” these men inhabited is no longer just a memory, but a permanent part of the art historical canon.
Do you have memories of the New York art scene from this era or thoughts on the recovery of queer art history? Share your comments below.
