Sub-Species Helms, Senatorius, 1990

David Wojnarowicz was a left-wing, gay-activist artist living, as he put it, 'in the shadow of the American dream'. 'Sub-Species Helms, Senatorius' is a typical polemic against cultural and political arch-conservatism. With little formal training and no real support from the art establishment, Wojnarowicz nevertheless bequeathed a complex and provocative body of imagery. In 1999 a major retrospective of his work was held at the New Museum of Contemporary Art in New York.