250

Dirk Rowntree

1948-

David Painting at Ward Line Pier 34 * David Wojnarowicz at Ward Line Pier 34, New York. 1983; printed 2025.

Together, 2 Epson digital prints
Each with Rowntree's signature and negative date in ink on verso
the images 12 1/8 x 18 in. (30.8 x 45.7 cm.), and slightly smaller, the sheets slightly larger

  • Provenance: Acquired directly from the Artist

    David Painting at Ward Line Pier 34
    David made this painting at the pier located on the Hudson River, at the end of Canal and Spring Streets. This room faces East towards Spring Street. It was part of a project where David and Mike Bidlo invited artists to make work in an abandoned pier. In 2016 this image was shown in "Something Possible Everywhere," an exhibition at Hunter College Galleries, curated by Jonathan Weinberg (Yale University). This drawing is similar to those later published in David's book Memories that Smell like Gasoline (1992). A new edition with additional essays by Amy Scholder and Ocean Vuong has just been published by Nightboat Books. This image was featured in the Summer 2018 issue of Artforum Magazine.

    David Wojnarowicz at Ward Line Pier 34
    David is "cartoonizing" a broken window at the pier located at the end of Canal and Spring Street on the Hudson River. This room faces East toward Spring Street. This photograph was shown most recently at Hal Bromm Gallery in "The Queer Show." It was published in Artnews in the early 80s and again in the Whitney catalogue History Keeps Me Awake at Night (p. 40).

    The Artist statements as follows:
    Dirk Rowntree is a photographer, musician, and designer, who first met Wojnarowicz in 1976. They stayed in touch through the end of the artists' life and Rowntree documented much of the art made at the Ward Line Pier. Jean Foos, his partner, is an artist and graphic designer, and she too frequently collaborated with Wojnarowicz. She was also a designer at Artforum. In the late 1970s and 80s, the piers along the Hudson River between Canal and 14th Street were a popular gay cruising scene. In 1983 David Wojnarowicz and Mike Bidlo began inviting artists to create installations at Pier 34 as an alternative to the growing art scene in the East Village. He called it "the real MoMa;" hundreds of artists participated. By June of that year, the police had cracked down on the artists' use of the space, and the pier was demolished.
  • Condition:
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