340

Hugh Steers

1963-1995

Carl George, 1987.

Oil on cotton canvas
40 x 31 1/2 in. (101.6 x 80 cm.)

  • Provenance: Private collection, New York.

    Illustrated
    Hugh Steers The Complete Paintings, 1983-1994, New York: Visual AIDS, 2015, page 26.

    Executed in the kitchen of the sitter, this work was finished between April and May of 1987 before Steers was diagnosed HIV+.

    Influenced by Bonnard, Vuillard, Ingres, and Tintoretto, this portrait of friend and collector Carl George is an oil from Steers that utilizes a lighter palette to portray the sitter. Both worked freelance for Michael Fenner, a New York-based florist and party planner. George was the first collector to acquire Steers' work. He collected a suite of oil on paper works over time.

    "I'd pay him and then, with an insouciance that defined the time, we'd blow the money at the Pyramid Club hanging out with Hyun Mi Oh, or at the Bar - a neighborhood gay hangout, drinking martinis - him vodka and me gin. The artworks thus became known as the "martini suite."
    - Carl George
  • Condition:
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