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VISUAL AIDS
Hugh Steers: The Complete Paintings
Introduction by Dale Peck. Text by Cynthia Carr, James Smalls. Preface by Nelson Santos.
Hugh Steers: The Complete Paintings is the first publication on the career of American figurative painter Hugh Steers (1962–95), who died of AIDS at the age of 32. Committed to figurative painting at a time when it had fallen out of favor, Steers painted expressionist-realist narratives of a life shadowed by isolation and mortality, yet infused with wry humor, camp and what Steers himself called a “gorgeous bleakness.” Steers consciously merged AIDS, intimacy and the body into the traditional vocabulary of painting. With his vulnerable subjects depicted in hospital rooms, bedrooms and bathrooms, Steers engaged with radical ideas about male intimacy, queer politics, fragility and health care at the height of the AIDS crisis. Featuring more than 600 full-color images of Steers’ paintings on canvas and paper, this volume provides a long-overdue, expansive view of the artist’s career and impact.
Featured image is reproduced from Hugh Steers: The Complete Paintings.
PRAISE AND REVIEWS
Hyperallergic
Ksenia M. Soboleva
Working amid the AIDS crisis, Steers’s paintings exude a graceful, figurative style that went under-recognized during his brief lifetime.
"Blue Rug" (1994) is reproduced from Hugh Steers: The Complete Paintings, the first book on the promising figurative painter who died of AIDS in 1995, at the age of 32. Nelson Santos, Executive Director of Visual AIDS, the book's publisher, writes, "His work, which was increasingly informed by his own illness, is defined by its subject matter—isolation, the fragility of the body, and intimacy between men. Committed to figurative painting at a time when it was out of favor with critics and collectors, Steers nonetheless gained appreciation for his expressionist-realist narratives of a life shadowed by mortality yet infused with wry humor, camp, and what Steers himself called a 'gorgeous bleakness.'" continue to blog
FORMAT: Hbk, 8.5 x 11 in. / 248 pgs / 630 color. LIST PRICE: U.S. $45.00 LIST PRICE: CANADA $60 GBP £40.00 ISBN: 9780967842561 PUBLISHER: Visual AIDS AVAILABLE: 2/23/2016 DISTRIBUTION: D.A.P. RETAILER DISC: TRADE PUBLISHING STATUS: Out of stock indefinitely AVAILABILITY: Not available TERRITORY: WORLD
Published by Visual AIDS. Introduction by Dale Peck. Text by Cynthia Carr, James Smalls. Preface by Nelson Santos.
Hugh Steers: The Complete Paintings is the first publication on the career of American figurative painter Hugh Steers (1962–95), who died of AIDS at the age of 32. Committed to figurative painting at a time when it had fallen out of favor, Steers painted expressionist-realist narratives of a life shadowed by isolation and mortality, yet infused with wry humor, camp and what Steers himself called a “gorgeous bleakness.” Steers consciously merged AIDS, intimacy and the body into the traditional vocabulary of painting. With his vulnerable subjects depicted in hospital rooms, bedrooms and bathrooms, Steers engaged with radical ideas about male intimacy, queer politics, fragility and health care at the height of the AIDS crisis. Featuring more than 600 full-color images of Steers’ paintings on canvas and paper, this volume provides a long-overdue, expansive view of the artist’s career and impact.
