It Was Vulgar and It Was Beautiful

Starred review from January 24, 2022
Editor Lowery debuts with a fascinating study of how art galvanized AIDS activism in the 1980s and ’90s. He documents how a small group of activists in New York City developed the symbol of a pink triangle on a black background accompanied by the text “Silence=Death” in 1985 and how the advocacy group ACT UP raised funds by selling T-shirts and buttons emblazoned with the graphic. The image’s “widespread acceptance,” Lowery writes, “also articulated that a community actually existed.” Other early artworks associated with ACT UP included a Pride parade float designed to look like a concentration camp and a 1987 installation at the New Museum of Contemporary Art that was inspired by the Nuremberg trials. The group behind that exhibit became Gran Fury, an affiliate of ACT UP New York focused on art. Lowery thrillingly recounts Gran Fury’s use of advertising-influenced “slick aesthetic” art as protest propaganda, including the insertion of a fake front page into real editions of the New York Times and “Kissing Doesn’t Kill” posters plastered on buses in New York City and San Francisco. Throughout, Lowery provides crucial context about the history of the AIDS epidemic and draws vivid sketches of key players in Gran Fury. The result is a captivating look at the power of art as a political tool.

Starred review from February 1, 2022

In this debut, Lowery recounts his personal involvement in and the history of the AIDS activist art collective Gran Fury, a visual force to be reckoned with in 1980s and 1990s New York City. Gran Fury's most famous graphics were the SILENCE = DEATH (1987; ubiquitous on posters, buttons, and t-shirts) and the confrontational KISSING DOESN'T KILL: GREED AND INDIFFERENCE DO (1989). The latter was printed on posters plastered onto the sides of New York City buses and made to look like an advertisement; it particularly imitated the style of United Colors of Benetton's immensely popular clothing ads. Lowery's memoir evokes the communal furnace that was Gran Fury, with all the attending tragedy of the U.S. AIDS crisis. He writes vivid, frank portraits of Gran Fury's members and of their relationships with one another and with ACT UP (the AIDS Coalition to Unleash Power); here Lowery's raw emotion strikes deep into the reader's conscience. The context of how the art was incubated makes this narrative essential to the history of the AIDS epidemic; as Lowery demonstrates, Gran Fury increased public awareness of AIDS by inventive use of art and unquestionably saved lives. VERDICT Readers especially interested in HIV/AIDS in New York in the '80s and '90s will find this book essential; general readers will also profit from Lowery's insights on issues of art and activism. Recommended for all interested in how art can change the world.--David Azzolina

Copyright 2022 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

February 1, 2022
The story of an art collective's relentless fight against the AIDS epidemic. A group of artists and graphic designers who came together within the New York City chapter of ACT UP, Gran Fury used sophisticated marketing techniques and state-of-the-art software to design posters, T-shirts, and other visuals for use during protests. Lowery interviewed 9 out of the 10 Gran Fury members still alive, and he supplements their informative testimonies with eyewitness accounts from the ACT UP Oral History Project, chronicling the creation and use of the collective's greatest hits. These include posters reading "Read My Lips," with a photo of kissing sailors; "He Kills Me," describing the criminal neglect of President Ronald Reagan; and "All People With AIDS Are Innocent." Art against AIDS went "on the road" when "Kissing Doesn't Kill" appeared on ads on the sides of buses in San Francisco, Chicago, and Washington, D.C. Eventually dependent on the financial support of arts institutions, Gran Fury was invited to show in the 1990 Venice Biennale, where controversy ensued. Today, the group's work is "held in the permanent collections of the Metropolitan Museum of Art, MoMA and the Whitney and has been shown in most major museums in America." Lowery puts his subject in context, describing similar AIDS pieces by the artists David Wojnarowicz and General Idea, but the true value of Gran Fury's public works came from how they were successfully deployed in political actions. While the narrative is highly readable and educative, the author's "Notes on Sources" are not quite up to scholarly standards. "In lieu of a traditional bibliography or list of references," he writes, "I've detailed how each chapter came to be, whom I talked to and the sources I consulted and relied upon. This is not meant to be a comprehensive list." As such, a dubious assertion such as, "America's most widely read gay newspaper, the New York Native," cannot be sourced or challenged. This is an undeniable weakness in an otherwise strong social history. A lively depiction of how graphic art can bring political activism to life.

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Starred review from March 1, 2022
A collected oral history of the AIDS crisis in the 1980s and 1990s is by no means a small endeavor. Yet Lowery, using countless sources, knits together just such a chronicle. The focus is primarily on the art that moved and sustained a silent population of men and women who suffered the scourge of an unnamed disease and rage over the glacial pace of government response once the HIV virus and AIDS were identified. In 1985, a small group of gay men, later dubbed Gran Fury, who professionally covered art, advertising, and graphic design, created a poster that displayed their pain and anger and plastered it across New York City. The ubiquitous poster, Silence = Death, along with a pride parade float made to represent a concentration camp with then President Reagan at the helm, inspired those living with AIDS to gather in ACT UP meetings and use their collective voice to demand action to stop the spread of AIDS. Lowery lovingly portrays the strength, effort, happy victories, and overwhelming sadness of these historic efforts. Art had a major role in the movement, and as this testimonial lays out, the people behind the art stand as pillars of beautiful humanity. This is a rich and necessary documentation.

COPYRIGHT(2022) Booklist, ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.

September 1, 2022

In the late 1980s, the AIDs epidemic was annihilating queer people, intravenous drug users, and marginalized communities. One group, ACT-UP, was fighting misinformation about the disease and gave birth to the Gran Fury collective, which formed to fight against the systemic oppression that allowed AIDS to run rampant through the art community. Lowery looks into the art and activism that touched the lives of those who were affected by the pandemic. The author also investigates the ways in which those same methods have been used during the COVID-19 pandemic. Vikas Adam narrates this look at the AIDS pandemic with tenderness. VERDICT Lowery's interviews with the members of the collective provides a sweeping look at the movements that changed the way in which people view government inaction, greed, and the stigma surrounding AIDS. Adam conveys the emotions of the collective members, adding a singular depth to the account. Lowery provides a well-organized list of sources for listeners who wish to learn more.--Elyssa Everling

Copyright 2022 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.