Paddle8 : Dossier - Shelf with Hand

In Series: Paul Thek's Tomb

Hujar and Paul Thek became friends in the late 1950s and were a couple from 1964 to 1967, when their relationship ended and Thek left new York to live in Europe. By 1974, Thek had disassociated himself from Hujar and much of his New York community. Early on, however, he and Hujar were inseparable. Susan Sontag’s ’60s circle – of which they were a part – knowingly grouped them in conversation as “Peter and Paul.”

The exhibition photograph comes from Peter's documentation of Paul's most-discussed sculptural installation, The Tomb, a ziggurat-inspired structure that contained a full-size, painstakingly crafted effigy of Thek himself. Matthew Israel described how the images "testify to the manner in which Hujar and Thek conceived presenting Thek and his work to the public." The photographs stress "the uncanny resemblance between Thek’s body and his fetishistic sculptures. The images consistently juxtapose the real and the sculpted."

Matthew Israel. "Finding Thek's Tomb." Art in America. November 2010.
© 1987 by The Peter Hujar Archive LLC and courtesy Matthew Marks Gallery NY

Early Work: Italy

Hujar and Thek went to Italy on a Fulbright scholarship in the mid 1950s. There, in the Capuchin catacombs near Palermo in Sicily, Thek found inspiration for his Meat pieces and The Tomb. For Hujar, the trip was also a turning point; his photographs from the catacombs comprise a large part of his book, Portraits in Life and Death, a landmark of 1970s photography.

Matthew Israel. "Finding Thek's Tomb." Art in America. November, 2010.
© 1987 by The Peter Hujar Archive LLC and courtesy Matthew Marks Gallery NY

Closer Look

In the cover story for Art in America's November 2010 issue, which ran concurrently with Paul Thek's retrospective at the Whitney Museum, Matthew Israel described the impact of "the point-blank views of the wax figure's face, in which its verisimilitude is striking." He points out that "these views encourage one to find proof of the work’s artificiality, such as a bumpiness in the wax or a faint seam between the figure’s neck and chest."

Matthew Israel. "Finding Thek's Tomb." Art in America. November 2010.

Closer Look: Whitney Museum curator discusses Thek's Tomb

Elisabeth Sussman, Sondra Gilman Curator of Photography at the Whitney Museum, discussed Peter Hujar's documentation of Thek's Tomb and the uncanny quality of the very-much-alive Thek in his tee-shirt, seen working beside the dead effigy representation: "To come so close as to touch your own dead body, even if you are doing it through your own imagination is very scary territory."

In Conversation: Paul writes to Peter

Tomb was a funerary monument that Thek made for himself and which was photographed frequently by Hujar. When it was shown at the Whitney in 1968, Vietnam veterans left flowers. Here, the two exchange a bemused appreciation for the vets.

Contemporaries: Richard Avedon

The mid-'60s were critical in the lives of both artists. Thek first showed at the prestigious Pace Gallery, while Hujar formed a friendship with the famous Richard Avedon in 1967. The two met through a photographer's master class at the New School taught by Avedon, a class that included visiting speakers like Diane Arbus and Lucas Samaras. Avedon and Hujar remained close long after the workshop ended.

Seen here are a selection of works by both Avedon and Hujar studying their subjects in mental hospitals and institutions.

Images courtesy of the Richard Avedon Foundation and the artist.

Portraits

Hujar would often photograph Thek in Fire Island where the artists spent their summers making work in one of the 6 houses owned by dealer, curator and friend Sam Green.

Contemporaries

Hujar would quite frequently tell a friend (like Thek) to bring other friends to his studio for a group photograph. Here is one record of Thek’s art-world posse at the time.

(Standing left to right): Allen Rosenbaum, Susi Bloch, Gene R. Swenson, Kes Zapkus, Paul Thek, Simona Morini, Fred Tuten, Diane Kelder, Joe Raffaele, Marion Greenstone, Steve Lawrence; (seated left to right): Barbara Pallenberg, Larry Sapir, Nancy Worthington Fish, Howard Krieger, Linda Rosenkranz [Finch], Marisol, Mike Todd, Eva Hesse; Peter Hujar is reflected in the mirror. (As identified by Stephen Koch and Elisabeth Sussman of the Whitney.)