The art of love: 14 works that make our hearts beat faster 

From Cupid to Kahlo to Keats — the artworks and objects that, when Valentine’s Day comes, encapsulate the power of love

Rebecca Jones: Head of Sale, Photographs

‘Peter Hujar met poet and visual artist David Wojnarowicz in 1980, a year before he made this portrait in his East Village studio. When I look at this picture, which was recently on show at the Jeu de Paume in Paris, I see the love between two people, both estranged from their birth families, left to build their own families within their marginalised community.

Peter Hujar: David Wojnarowicz Reclining (II), 1981. Vintage gelatin silver print, 20 x 16 in (50.8 × 40.6 cm). Courtesy Peter Hujar Archive, Pace/MacGill Gallery, and Fraenkel Gallery

‘Wojnarowicz was diagnosed with AIDS shortly after Hujar’s own AIDS-related death in 1987. In an interview Wojnarowicz once said, “Everything I made, I made for Peter.”’

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