PHOTOGRAPHY BY GAYLETTER
Loewe Celebrates David Wojnarowicz
A limited edition t-shirt by Jonathan Anderson benefiting Visual AIDS
Loewe just launched a limited edition series of t-shirts featuring works by the American artist and activist, David Wojnarowicz (1954-1992). All of the proceeds from the series are going to Visual AIDS, an organization which “preserves and promotes the work of HIV positive artists and assists artists living with HIV/AIDS.” Visual AIDS also works to raise awareness about AIDS and create a dialogue through visual art exhibitions and publications. Designed by Loewe Creative Director Jonathan Anderson, the project serves to “foster awareness and honor Wojnarowicz as a courageous creator and activist.” The series features four of Wojnarowicz’s pieces printed on high-grade cotton crew necks.
Wojnarowicz became a protagonist of the local art scene in Manhattan’s East Village in 1978. Many of his works, both visual and literary, center on themes of ostracism and isolation drawn from his experience as a gay man. After being diagnosed with AIDS, Wojnarowicz’ art took on a vocal political stance and he produced some of the most important and challenging work around the AIDS crisis throughout the 1980s. His scathing honesty earned the ire of federal authorities, and his work continues to spark controversy and inspire in our own time of growing cultural divisions around critical social issues concerning freedom, justice and equality. In creating this series Jonathan Anderson seeks to honor Wojnarowicz’s legacy and, in keeping with the mission of Visual AIDS, maintain a dialogue about AIDS through art. The T-shirt project coincides with the Loewe Foundation’s exhibition of works by Wojnarowicz and Peter Hujar, on view at the label’s Gran Via store in Madrid from June through late August.
The series was launched on May 31st with a fundraising event at Printed Matter Inc. in New York. Produced in a limited run of under 400 per design, the t-shirts will be available at Printed Matter and the P.P.O.W. Gallery in New York, as well as Dover Street Market (London and Tokyo), a number of Loewe selected stores, and online.
