November 12, 2020
Keith Mayerson ‘Homage to America’s Doctor, Anthony S. Fauci’ (2020) giclée print signed by the artist Print: dimensions 12.375 x12.375 inches (31.4325 × 31.4325 cm) Edition of 100 + 10 A/P
The nation’s foremost coronavirus expert broke into sports page headlines when he wore a mask emblazoned with logos of his favorite baseball team, the Washington Nationals, to testify before a Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee hearing on June 30.
Celebrated for depicting the “American dream” through images of far-reaching figures such as Annie Oakley, Sitting Bull, Abraham Lincoln, Superman, and Marvin Gaye, artist and HIV activist Keith Mayerson chose that masked Nats super-fan persona to create a portrait called Homage to America’s Doctor, Anthony S. Fauci.
Born in Brooklyn in 1940, Fauci played baseball in city sandlots and went on to captain the Regis High School basketball team. He stopped playing ball when he started studying classics, philosophy, and pre-med at the College of the Holy Cross in Worcester, Massachusetts, but he never gave up being a fan.
Since his appointment as director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID) in 1984, Fauci has advised six presidents on domestic and global health issues, including HIV/AIDS, SARS CoV-2, and COVID-19.
Fauci has never let right-wing criticism and controversy downplay his goal of saving lives, even as the face mask is now as politicized as condoms were at the height of the AIDS crisis in the 1980s.
“Maybe 50 percent of you hate me because you think I’m trying to destroy the country, but listen to me for six weeks or so, and do what I say, and you’ll see the numbers go down,” Fauci said last month, after warning that as many as 400,000 people could die from coronavirus in the United States.
Red Hot, a not-for-profit organization committed to fighting AIDS through pop culture is offering one of 1oo signed limited edition giclée prints of Mayerson’s portrait to the first 100 donors of $250 or more. Giclée is a neologism coined in 1991 by printmaker Jack Duganne for fine art digital prints made on inkjet printers.
The first 100 donors of $250 or more will also receive a 30th Anniversary vinyl reissue of a Cole Porter tribute album Red Hot + Blue; a tote bag and T-shirt featuring imagery by David Wojnarowicz, the late Polish-American multi-media visual and performing artist and AIDS activist who rose to fame in the East Village art scene; as well as a shirt with a Truism by Jenny Holzer.
The album features an eclectic array of Porter covers by a wide range of musicians, including: Neneh Cherry; The Neville Brothers; Sinéad O’Connor; Salif Keita; Fine Young Cannibals, a duet with Debbie Harry and Iggy Pop, The Pogues featuring Kirsty MacColl; David Byrne; Tom Waits; Annie Lennox; U2; Les Negresses Vertes; k.d. Lang; Thompson Twins; Erasure; Jungle Brothers; Lisa Stansfield; Jimmy Somerville; Jody Watley; and Aztec Camera.
The black, long-sleeved shirt is imprinted in white block letters with Holzer’s Truism: In a Dream You Saw a Way to Survive and You Were Full of Joy. Holzer’s Truisms are post-card sized original messages printed on wood, found in museum collections, including the Museum of Modern Art in New York.
On November 19, Red Hot, in collaboration with Treatment Action Group (TAG), will unveil the commissioned Mayerson portrait during its first virtual, Research in Action Awards. Register for the free event.
