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