The Andy Warhol Foundation for the Visual Arts

Visual AIDS

Location
New York, NY
Grant Cycle
Fall 2018
Amount
$80,000
Type of Grant
Multi-year Program Support

Visual AIDS was established in 1988 to preserve the legacies of artists lost to AIDS, to center the voices of those living with HIV, and to create dialogue and scholarship around HIV/AIDS both historically and today. Through exhibitions, public events and especially publications, Visual AIDS champions the work of underrecognized artists affected by the disease, insuring that their contributions to contemporary art discourse are not only preserved but are actively engaged by new generations of scholars and artists. As long-term HIV survivors, friends, allies, activists and families continue to age, there is an increased urgency to document stories and histories now. Beginning in 2018 Visual AIDS published an important series of books that approach this task from complementary angles.


Darrel Ellis, Self-portrait after photograph by Robert Mapplethorpe, c. 1989 Painting on canvas, 60 x 42 in. Courtesy of the estate of Darrel Ellis. Photo: Christopher Burke Studios
Darrel Ellis, Untitled (from Thomas Ellis photograph of child’s birthday party), c. 1990 Gelatin silver print, 25 x 29 in. Courtesy of the estate of Darrel Ellis. Photo: Christopher Burke Studios
Kay Rosen, AIDS ON GOING GOING ON, 2013, projected on the facade of the Guggenheim Museum for Visual AIDS’ Day With(out) Art 2015. Photo: Elliot Luscombe
ACT UP, Installation view of Let the Record Show…, The New Museum of Contemporary Art, 1987. Courtesy of Gran Fury
ACT UP, Installation view of Let the Record Show…, The New Museum of Contemporary Art, 1987. Courtesy of Gran Fury
Frederick Weston, Self Portrait, 1979, Dot matrix print, tape, 14 1/8 x 10 3/4 in; courtesy Gordon Robichaux, NY, photo: Gregory Carideo

See Also

“The terrific range of project proposals we receive each year speaks to the mobile and porous disciplinary boundaries of contemporary art practice, and to the rich and inventive ways writers approach art today. They are alert to the urgent need to expand the conventions of art history and criticism with ideas from other discourses, such as black studies, transnational and diaspora studies, gender and women’s studies, and LGBT studies. The work of lesser known and overlooked artists and art communities continues to be mined, with writers articulating new ways to counter the striking imbalances of race, class and gender that continue to affect the arts and the culture industry.”

Pradeep Dalal, Program Director,  The Andy Warhol Foundation Arts Writers Grant