post basquiat: David Wojnarowicz

The artists to get the real punk seal of approval was David Wojnarowicz who, for this writer, pops up as a myth in the late eighties - I knew people who said they'd seen his shows in the lower east side, but I didn't until his "retrospective" at the museum of contemporary art. Lots of comic art, a sense of enclosure, and very political, always radical. Also 8mm films that were hilarious, psycho killers, and the tintin like cartoon in his art, mad scientists etc. As to what happened after his death, strictly speaking, nothing. Musically, the rise of hard core is the persona of Kurt Cobain, otherwise, in new york, more, fashion and rehab and money and mannered interior decorating.
With his passing punk, per-sea, was dead. Bands still acknowledge it as a style, but, they got old and the graphic style aged. Even in the lower east side a more formal art add style took over and a lot of old neighborhood businesses like cbgbs closed and rehabbed.

David links:

PPOW gallery:
http://www.ppowgallery.com/artists/DavidWojnarowicz/

http://www.actupny.org/diva/synWoj.html