Hugh Steers

In this tenderly rendered lithograph, a solitary figure in drag admires themselves in the mirror. This heel-clad figure recurs in Hugh Steers’s compositions, often appearing as a superhero-type persona. Steers created scenes of Queer domestic life and intimacy, later bringing in themes of illness and HIV. This focus was especially important during the 1980s and ’90s, when abstraction—not figurative work—dominated art-making, and scenes of openly gay domestic life were at odds with the political rhetoric of the day. Known as a painter, Steers only made three prints—this and two others. He died from AIDS-related complications within months of completing them.

–Conor Moynihan, assistant curator of prints, drawings, and photographs