Hugh Steers

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.