Episode 673 – Andrew Durbin

About this episode

Andrew Durbin discusses his biography of artists Peter Hujar and Paul Thek, exploring themes of authenticity and queer life.

Virtual Memories Show 673: Andrew Durbin “I think we live in an era that is so deprived of authenticity, where people can’t live the lives Peter and Paul did, and so many young people are desperate to do that: to live in a cheap neighborhood and make art.” With THE WONDERFUL WORLD THAT ALMOST WAS: A Life of Peter Hujar and Paul Thek (FSG), Andrew Durbin brings us a masterful biography of a pair of artists, their art, gay life pre- and post-Stonewall, and more. We talk about his first exposure to each of their art, why he restricted the biography to the years Paul and Peter were together/around each other (1956-1975), how queer lives are often oriented around death and why he wanted to affirm life with this book, when a biographer can let his subjects go, and why he prefers Thek over Hujar. We get into the ephemerality of much of Thek’s art installations, Hujar’s dissatisfaction with commercial photography and the struggles with getting photos taken seriously as art, the triangle they formed with Andrew’s hero, Susan Sontag, Thek’s belief that marrying the right woman (Sontag, at one point) would have “fixed” him, his regret at…

People in this episode

Host: Gil Roth

Guest: Andrew Durbin

Topics covered

• biography
• art
• queer life
• New York City
• authenticity
• Peter Hujar
• Paul Thek

Keywords

• biography
• Peter Hujar
• Paul Thek
• queer art
• New York City
• authenticity
• art criticism

Mentioned in this episode

Organizations: FSG

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