Gary Indiana, the provocative novelist and cultural critic whose sharp, unflinching commentary defined and dissected an era of art, has died at 74.
His death was first reported by Frieze on Thursday.
Born Gary Hoisington in Derry, New Hampshire in 1950, Indiana briefly studied at University of California, Berkeley, before dropping out and moving to New York City in 1978. There, he pursued playwriting and acting, but he was perhaps best known for his work at “The Village Voice,” where he served as chief art critic from 1985 to 1988.
“It took years to get people to stop writing about me as an art critic, which was something I never in a million years wanted to be in the first place, and I certainly didn’t consider myself an art critic in any conventional sense,” Indiana said in a 2023 interview with The New York Times.
“I did it for two and a half years,” he added. “That’s not much in a life as long as the one I’ve had.”
Indiana is also the author of eight novels and hundreds of essays. He published his first book, “Horse Crazy,” chronicling a doomed romantic relationship during the AIDS crisis, in 1989. He went on to write a trilogy of true crime novels, starting with “Resentment,” which was based on the trial of Lyle and Erik Menéndez. He followed it up with “Three Month Fever,” inspired by Andrew Cunanan, who killed Gianni Versace, and “Deprave Indifference,” which borrows material from the life of grifter Sante Kimes.
Despite his sweeping portfolio, which also includes film acting and photography, Indiana said he never considered himself a “professional writer.”
“I’ve never felt comfortable describing myself in those terms,” he told the Times. “I call myself a ‘talented amateur.’”