The former Yugoslavia ended badly. Yet, after its expulsion from the Soviet bloc, it enjoyed an optimistic outlook. The architecture was remarkable, a far cry from the drab constructions elsewhere in Eastern Europe. There was “an abundant presence of design culture… in a socialist country. It was an aspect we tended not to see.” More images are here.
Kingelez desired a glorious future for Kinshasa. It inspired him to build imagined utopian cities out of cardboard, Styrofoam and scavenged materials. His “extreme maquettes” display “the rigor of an aesthetic as sophisticated as that of an Alexander Calder or a Joseph Cornell … [and possess] the invincibility of uncompromised, unflagging, sheer desire.”
As the AIDS crisis emerged, Wojnarowicz was highly critical of government inaction. His angry, self-taught art made him an unconventional star before he too succumbed to AIDS. Does his art transcend its 1980’s moment? Most of the numerous reviews think so. A more personal assessment of the artist, by his biographer, is here. More images are here.