• Store IconStore
  • Register or Login
  • Join our mailing list
  • Artists+

  • Exhibits+Events

  • Journal

  • Gallery

  • Projects

  • History

  • Support

  • Artists+

  • Exhibits+Events

  • Journal

  • Gallery

  • Projects

  • History

  • Support

  • Store
  • Register or Login
  • Books & Catalogues

DUETS: Julie Ault & David Deitcher on William Olander

Olander cover 3
DD03 1982 New York Bill Olander by Deitcher DEITCHER 400 DPI RGB
NYPL03 1619216u
NM4 8735 ca object representations media 11593 publiclarge
NM10 38748 ca object representations media 3090 publiclarge
1

DUETS: Julie Ault & David Deitcher in Conversation on William Olander

Published by Visual AIDS, 2021

ORDER NOW ($15)


Julie Ault and David Deitcher illuminate the life and work of the influential art historian, New Museum curator, and Visual AIDS co-founder William Olander (1950–1989). Olander’s exhibitions challenged oppressive institutional boundaries, blew open dichotomies, and boldly confronted discrimination, sexual difference, and AIDS, shaping curatorial practice for decades to come.

Committed to using the New Museum as a platform to challenge the ideological functions of the art world, Olander invited members of ACT UP to design a multimedia installation for the museum’s window on Broadway in 1987. The first museum project to unflinchingly address the AIDS epidemic and the political figures who enabled it, Let the Record Show... became the centerpiece of art historian and critic Douglas Crimp’s impassioned call for “new cultural practices” to respond to AIDS.

Ault and Deitcher’s conversation offers new insights into the through-lines of Olander's career, from his graduate research on the French Revolution to exhibitions at the Allen Memorial Art Museum and his later engagement with AIDS activism.

Includes selected writings by Olander and an afterword by Kyle Croft.


Praise for DUETS: Julie Ault & David Deitcher in Conversation on William Olander
"Julie Ault and David Deitcher testify to Olander's friendship and love of community, qualities indistinguishable from his deeply principled commitment to both activism and art."
— Pamela Lee, Professor of Modern and Contemporary Art, Yale University

"William Olander was a critical spark for the New Museum at arguably the institution's most urgent moment. This long overdue publication provides an intimate and comprehensive overview by two of Olander's distinguished fellow travelers and revives a potent cultural voice that was silenced too soon."
— Stuart Comer, Chief Curator of Media and Performance, Museum of Modern Art


DUETS is a series of publications that pairs artists, activists, writers, and thinkers in dialogues about their creative practices and current social issues related to HIV/AIDS. These engaging and highly readable conversations highlight the connections between communities of artists and activists. Drawing from the Visual AIDS Artist Registry and Archive Project, this series continues Visual AIDS’ mission to support, promote, and honor the work of artists with HIV/AIDS and the artistic contributions of the AIDS movement.


$15

Published September 2021

ORDER NOW AT THE VISUAL AIDS STORE

Edited by Barbara Schroder and Karen Kelly of Dancing Foxes Press and Kyle Croft and Esther McGowan of Visual AIDS
Series initiated by Nelson Santos
Book Design: Tiffany Malakooti
Printer: Die Keure, Brugge, Belgium
152 pages, perfect bound softcover
7.5 x 5.5 ins.
ISBN: 978-1-7326415-4-9

Related Events

Visual AIDS at the NY Art Book Fair
October 13–October 16, 2022
Let the Record Show | William Olander: Curator, Critic, Activist
April 13, 2022
DUETS Book Launch: William Olander
February 9, 2022
  • Facebook
  • Twitter
  • Email

Buy Now

SUPPORT PROJECTS LIKE THESE!

logo mobile

VISUAL AIDS
526 W 26th St #309
New York, NY 10001
P: 212-627-9855
E: info@visualAIDS.org

  • Support Us
  • About Us
  • Terms and Conditions
  • Site by Familiar

Donate to Support
Visual AIDS Today!