REAL ART WAYS HOSTS BOOK DISCUSSION ON
ARTIST DAVID WOJNAROWICZ'S MEMOIR

Hartford, Connecticut - Real Art Ways is hosting an informal book discussion on David Wojnarowicz's memoir Close to the Knives: A Memoir of Disintegration on Wednesday, February 2, 2011 at 7 PM. This event is free and open to the public.

First published in 1991, Close to the Knives is an autobiographical collection of creative essays ranging in topic from the artist's early life on the streets of New York to the AIDS crisis to the culture wars of the early 90s.

Discussion will be facilitated by Meghan Quinn, Communications Coordinator, and Meghan Dahn, Development Manager. A limited number of books are available for sale at Real Art Ways.

Real Art Ways is currently showing Wojnarowicz's video piece "A Fire in My Belly" in the gallery in response to the Smithsonian's removal of the piece from its exhibit Hide/Seek.

On November 30, 2010 the Smithsonian removed "A Fire in My Belly" from Hide/Seek, an exhibition on "sexual difference in the making of modern American portraiture," after pressure from the Catholic League, incoming Speaker of the House John A. Boehner (R-OH) and incoming House Majority Leader Eric Cantor (R-VA), who objected to an 11-second segment of the video that depicts a crucifix covered with ants.

Along with presenting Wojnarowicz's "A Fire in My Belly" Real Art Ways is displaying a copy of "Untitled (One Day This Kid...)" and is offering free postcards of the work for visitors. Real Art Ways showed "Untitled (One Day This Kid...)" in its 1990 show AIDS/SIDA.

ABOUT DAVID WOJNAROWICZ
David Wojnarowicz (1954-1992) was an artist, gay rights activist and writer whose work is collected by international museums including the Museum of Modern Art, NY, The Whitney Museum, The Library of Congress, The New York Public Library, The San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, The Reina Sofia in Madrid, Museum Ludwig in Cologne, the Tokyo Metropolitan Museum of Photography, and others.

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