Hugh Steers Papers
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Abstract
Hugh Auchincloss Steers (1962-1995) was an American painter who committed to representational painting and figuration throughout his career in order to address the impact of Queer identity and the AIDS crisis. The collection contains materials created and accumulated by Steers during his lifetime, and materials generated and managed by his estate after his death from AIDS-related complications in 1995. Materials include personal and business correspondence, notes, slides, transparencies, some personal photographs, resumes and CVs, artist statements, gallery invitations, business cards, price lists, invoices, receipts, lists of donated works, periodicals, press clippings, a pin, some exhibition catalogues, a poster, inventories, appraisals, Steers' official death certificate, a few short film reels from Steers' primary dealer Richard Anderson, and a video recording of Steers' memorial service.
Biographical Note
Hugh Auchincloss Steers (1962-1995) was an American painter whose artwork has been described as a combination of dreamlike allegory and figurative realism. Steers was born in Washington, D.C. and studied at Yale University, the Parsons School of Art and Design, and the Skowhegan School of Painting and Sculpture. Steers' artistic practice was inspired by notable figures in art history, such as El Greco, Pierre Bonnard, Edgar Degas as well as American artists like Edward Hopper, Jackson Pollock, and Franz Kline whom he believed created artwork that embodies a "gorgeous bleakness" and a "soft glow of brutality." Unlike his contemporaries, Steers committed to representational painting and figuration throughout his career, depicting - through a dramatic and colorful palette - a skewed use of perspective, a skillful depiction of light, and intimate, ambiguous scenes of isolated figures or couples that speak to issues of identify politics, mortality, eroticism, frailty, isolation, defiance, and compassion. Soon after Steers was diagnosed with HIV in 1987, he increasingly focused on AIDS as a subject matter, in particular the impact of queer identity and the AIDS crisis. During the last five years of his life, he introduced a fictive alter ego, a slender figure consistently cloaked in a white hospital gown. Steers passed away of AIDS-related complications in 1995 at the age of 32.
Steers received a Pollock-Krasner Foundation Fellowship grant in 1989, and his work has been exhibited at a number of galleries and museums across the United States and Italy, including the Whitney Museum of American Art, the New Museum of Contemporary Art, the Denver Art Museum, the Albright-Knox Art Gallery, and the Drawing Center in New York City. Steers' work can be found within the permanent collections of the Whitney Museum of American Art, the Walker Art Center, and the Denver Art Museum, and a comprehensive monograph of his work was published by Visual AIDS in 2015.
Arrangement
The collection arrived partially arranged by the donor into four distinct series:
Series I. Correspondence
Series II. Gallery Materials
Series III Press Files
Series IV. Alexander Gray Associates/Estate of Hugh Steers Documents
The remaining materials, including slides, transparencies, and prints of the artist's work, were identified as Series V. Reproductions of Artwork.
Scope and Contents
The collection contains materials created by and accumulated by American painter Hugh Auchincloss Steers (1962-1995) during his lifetime, as well as materials generated and managed by the Estate of Hugh Steers after the artist's death of AIDS-related complications on March 1, 1995 in New York City. The collection contains personal and business correspondence, handwritten notes, reproductions of artwork (slides, transparencies, and prints), some personal photographs, resumes and CVs, artist statements, gallery invitations, business cards, price lists, invoices for both advertisements and artwork, shipping receipts, lists of gifted works, periodicals, press clippings, a pin, exhibition catalogues, a poster, inventories, appraisals, Steers' official death certificate, and a video recording on VHS of Steers' memorial service. The collection also includes film reels depicting Steers' artwork that the artist's primary dealer, Richard Anderson, likely used during a presentation about Steers' work on April 13, 1994.
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Conditions Governing Access
Materials are open without restrictions.
Audiovisual Access Policies and Procedures
Audiovisual materials have not been preserved and may not be available to researchers. Materials not yet digitized will need to have access copies made before they can be used. To request an access copy, or if you are unsure if an item has been digitized, please contact fales.library@nyu.edu with the collection's name, collection number, and a description of the item(s) requested. A staff member will respond to you with further information.
Conditions Governing Use
Copyright (or related rights to publicity and privacy) for materials in this collection, created by Hugh Steers or the Estate of Hugh Steers, was not transferred to New York University. Permission to use materials must be secured from the copyright holder.
Preferred Citation
Identification of item, date; Hugh Steers Papers; MSS 511; box number; folder number; Fales Library and Special Collections, New York University.
Location of Materials
Immediate Source of Acquisition
Donated by the Burr Steers in June 2017. The accession number associated with this gift is 2017.182.
About this Guide
Processing Information
At the time of accessioning materials, which were partially arranged by the donor prior to donation, were rehoused in new, acid-free boxes. Original folders were retained when possible, and original binders housing slides, transparencies, and prints of Steers' artwork were replaced by acid-free folders and identified as Series V. Reproductions of Artowrk. Oversize periodicals and posters were rehoused in an oversize, acid-free file folder.
