Frank Moore - New Now New York Tuesday, September 19, 2017 | Phillips
  • Description

    A founding member of Visual AIDS and an environmental activist, Frank Moore was diagnosed with HIV in 1985 and subsequently incorporated themes of homosexuality, health care, bioethics, environmental degradation and AIDS into his work. Depicting a man on a hospital bed afloat in the ocean, this symbol strewn and dreamlike composition is the first of a series of studies for Moore’s important painting, Beacon (2001), which were exhibited at his mid-career retrospective at the Orlando Museum of Art and Albright Knox Art Gallery shortly after his death in 2002. Grappling with his definition of a beacon in this piece, Moore oscillated between a hospital door opening to a doctor and his ultimate choice as a more universal symbol of hope, a lighthouse eschewing a string of DNA.

  • Provenance

    Sperone Westwater Gallery, New York
    Acquired from the above by the present owner in 2003

  • Exhibited

    Orlando Museum of Art; Buffalo, Albright-Knox Art Gallery, Frank Moore: Green Thumb in a Dark Eden, June 8, 2002 - April 20, 2003, no. 27
    New York, Sperone Westwater Gallery, Frank Moore, September 12 - October 25, 2003

201

Study for Beacon I

signed, titled and inscribed "Study for Beacon I Frank Moore LETHE" on the reverse
ballpoint pen, gouache and watercolor on paper
9 1/2 x 12 1/4 in. (24.1 x 31.1 cm.)
Executed in 1998.

Estimate
$2,000 - 3,000 

Sold for $3,500

Contact Specialist
Rebekah Bowling
Head of Sale
New York
+ 1 212 940 1250

New Now

New York Auction 19 September 2017