Tom Rubnitz
{{Short description|American artist (1956–1992)}}
{{Use mdy dates|date=June 2025}}
{{Infobox person
| name = Tom Rubnitz
| image = Tom Rubnitz.png
| alt = Drag performer Sister Dimension in costume, in a still from Rubnitz's video Strawberry Shortcut
| caption = Sister Dimension in "Strawberry Shortcut"
| birth_name = Thomas Block Rubnitz
| birth_date = {{Birth date|1956|04|02}}
| birth_place = Chicago, Illinois, U.S.
| death_date = {{Death date and age|1992|08|12|1956|04|02}}
| death_place = New York City, U.S.
| other_names =
| occupation =
| years_active =
| known_for =
| notable_works =
}}
Thomas Block Rubnitz (April 2, 1956 – August 12, 1992) was an American painter, video artist, and AIDS activist. He was a part of the New York City drag world of the late 1980s, and he has been described as "an exuberant ethnographer of the East Village queer scene."{{cite news |title=Having a Ball: Anthology Invites You to Play With Two Cult Queer Legends |work=The Village Voice |date=August 10, 2016 |url=https://www.villagevoice.com/2016/08/10/having-a-ball-anthology-invites-you-to-play-with-two-cult-queer-legends/ |access-date=2022-05-22}}
Video art
Rubnitz was a pioneer of video art, and his underground films were inspired by pop culture and Las Vegas-style shows. A number of his works feature RuPaul and members of The B-52s. He was close with the actress, singer and Club 57 founder Ann Magnuson. He worked with East Village-associated artists including David Wojnarowicz, Lady Bunny, Hapi Phace, and John Sex.{{cite web |url=http://visualaids.org/artists/detail/tom-rubnitz |title=Tom Rubnitz, 1956–1992 |website=Visual AIDS |access-date=2018-07-30}} Rubnitz cameos as the bartender in the B-52s' music video Love Shack.
Rubnitz and the B-52s produced a public service announcement for the Art Against AIDS organization's "Summer of Love" project in 1987. The work visually referenced the cover of Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band by The Beatles in tableau vivant form, featuring the B-52s, Willi Ninja, Allen Ginsberg, Nam Jun Paik, Quentin Crisp, Lady Bunny, David Byrne, and others.{{cite web |title=Art Against AIDS: The B-52s and Friends |website=Dangerous Minds |date=February 23, 2012 |url=http://dangerousminds.net/comments/art_against_aids_the_b_52s_and_friends_1987}}
His works also include the spoof cooking videos "Strawberry Shortcut" and "Pickle Surprise" (1989).{{cite web |title=Beyond Beauty with Billy Erb |first=Michael |last=Economy |date=February 22, 2018 |url=https://www.papermag.com/pansy-beat-billy-erb-2538170286.html |website=Paper |access-date=2021-07-18}}{{cite web |title=Hustle with my Muscle: The Short Films of Tom Rubnitz |website=London Short Film Festival |date=January 18, 2020 |url=https://archive.shortfilms.org.uk/lsff2020/events/2020-01-18-hustle-with-my-muscle-the-short-films-of-tom-rubnitz |access-date=2021-07-18}}{{cite magazine |title="Pickle Surprise!" Tom Rubnitz's iconic short films land in London |magazine=QX Magazine |date=January 6, 2020 |url=https://www.qxmagazine.com/2020/01/tom-rubnitz-pickle-surprise/ |access-date=2023-01-28}}
The film "Listen to This" (1992), a collaboration with David Wojnarowicz and unfinished at the time of his death, critiques the Reagan and Bush Administrations for their failures addressing the AIDS crisis. The film was shown at MoMA's 2017–18 exhibit Club 57: Film, Performance, and Art in the East Village, 1978–1983.{{cite web |title=Club 57: Film, Performance, and Art in the East Village, 1978–1983 |website=Museum of Modern Art |date=October 31, 2017 – April 8, 2018 |url=https://www.moma.org/calendar/exhibitions/3824 |access-date=2023-01-28}}{{cite web |title=Club 57 – Tom Rubnitz |first=Samantha |last=Paucar |website=Arts in New York City – Hunter College |date=December 4, 2017 |url=https://eportfolios.macaulay.cuny.edu/gillespie17/2017/12/04/club-57-tom-rubnitz/ |access-date=2023-01-28}} It was also shown at OutFest in Los Angeles in 2014, and at Seoul International New Media in 2015.{{cite web |title=Listen to This |website=Video Data Bank |url=https://vdb.org/titles/listen |access-date=2023-01-28}}
Rubnitz said of his art, "I wanted to make things beautiful, funny and positive—escapes that you could just get into and laugh through. That was really important to me."{{cite web |title=Tom Rubnitz and Ann Magnuson |website=Landmarks |date=June 23, 2015 |url=https://landmarks.utexas.edu/video-art/tom-rubnitz-and-ann-magnuson |access-date=2022-05-22}}
Personal life
Rubnitz was born in Chicago in 1956. He graduated from New Trier High School in Winnetka, Illinois, and then attended the Kansas City Art Institute in Missouri, where he earned a B.F.A. Rubnitz later moved to New York City, where he worked at the Phyllis Kind Gallery in SoHo, known for showcasing outsider art and Chicago-based artists.{{cite news |last=Smith |first=Roberta |title=Phyllis Kind, Art Dealer Who Took In Outsiders, Dies at 85 |work=The New York Times |date=October 10, 2018 |url=https://www.nytimes.com/2018/10/10/obituaries/phyllis-kind-dead.html |access-date=2020-04-13}} Rubnitz was openly gay, and worked through his art to raise awareness of HIV/AIDS and the need for a cure. He died of an AIDS-related illness in August 1992, at the age of 36.
References
{{Reflist}}
External links
- [http://www.vdb.org/artists/tom-rubnitz Tom Rubnitz] in the [http://www.vdb.org/ Video Data Bank]
- {{IMDb name|id=1015532|name=Tom Rubnitz}}
- [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N733Ofj2cVQ Pickle Surprise!]
- [http://www.cinema.ucla.edu/events/2013-02-09/pickle-surprise-eyes-tom-rubnitz UCLA Film & Television Archive and The Andrew J. Kuehn Jr. Foundation present Pickle Surprise! The Eyes of Tom Rubnitz]
- [http://www.vdb.org/packages/sexywiggy/sexywiggydesserty1.html Movie clips from Tom Rubnitz: Sexy, Wiggy, Desserty]
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Category:American male painters
Category:American contemporary painters
Category:American video artists
Category:AIDS-related deaths in New York (state)
Category:American HIV/AIDS activists
Category:Nightlife in New York City
Category:20th-century American LGBTQ people
Category:20th-century American painters