The Toulouse-Lautrec of Times Square

Patrick Angus (b. North Hollywood, 1953; d. New York, 1992) was the paintbrush-wielding chronicler of gay life in 1980s Manhattan. At a time when abstract and minimalist art reigned supreme, he chose to focus on figurative representational art. He painted and drew portraits, cityscapes, landscapes, and, time and again, scenes from the homosexual underground milieu with its strip shows, bars, and bathhouses. Yet rather than trying to make a political statement, Angus sought to articulate basic human needs, yearnings, and anxieties. His pictures are metaphors of the quest for his own identity and journey of sexual self-discovery. With their deft use of light and expressive palette, his compositions capture the unbridled hedonism of his subjects as well as the distinctive atmosphere of the settings in which they appear. His artistic role model was the California-based British painter David Hockney, who took notice of Angus's work in 1992 and purchased six of his paintings shortly before the artist's death. Long admired by insiders, the oeuvre of Patrick Angus, who died of HIV-related disease at the age of 38, has remained largely unknown in the larger art scene. The book-with essays by Tobias Bednarz, Sebastian Preuss, Sarah Donata Schneider, Douglas Blair Turnbaugh, and Anne Vieth as well as a preface by Ulrike Groos-presents an in-depth survey of the artist's complete output.