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Dean Savard Reclining

A work made of gelatin silver print.

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  • A work made of gelatin silver print.

Date:

1984

Artist:

Peter Hujar
American, 1934-1987

About this artwork

Dean Savard reclines on a wood floor with raised arms framing his face and a pillow tucked under his tousled hair. Seeming to exist between sleep and wakefulness, a gentle smile spreads across his lips. An artist and gallerist, Savard ran Civilian Warfare Gallery with his friend Allan Barrows in New York’s East Village between 1982 and 1987. At the gallery, they hosted parties, painted, and showed works by local artists, many of them friends, including Greer Lankton and David Wojnarowicz.

Barrows recalled Hujar’s ability to “pull out [the sitter’s] soul through the camera.” Here Hujar has captured Savard’s signature style—suspenders without a shirt—and has also hinted at his subject’s tendency to drink and use drugs to excess by depicting him in a possibly unconscious state.

Status

Currently Off View

Department

Photography and Media

Artist

Peter Hujar

Title

Dean Savard Reclining

Place

United States (Artist's nationality:)

Date  Dates are not always precisely known, but the Art Institute strives to present this information as consistently and legibly as possible. Dates may be represented as a range that spans decades, centuries, dynasties, or periods and may include qualifiers such as c. (circa) or BCE.

Made 1984

Medium

Gelatin silver print

Dimensions

Image: 37.5 × 37.5 cm (14 3/4 × 14 3/4 in.); paper: 50.8 × 40.7 cm (20 × 16 in.)

Credit Line

Photography and Media Purchase Fund

Reference Number

2022.1447

Extended information about this artwork

Object information is a work in progress and may be updated as new research findings emerge. To help improve this record, please email . Information about image downloads and licensing is available here.

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