Kavi Gupta Gallery
Skip to main content
  • Menu
  • Artists
  • Exhibitions
  • News
  • Viewing Room
  • Editions
  • Events & Art Fairs
  • Public Works
  • Podcast
  • Information
  • Mission
Menu

Artworks

Open a larger version of the following image in a popup: Roger Brown, Aha! Heterosexuals Fuck Too, 1991

Roger Brown

Aha! Heterosexuals Fuck Too, 1991
Oil on canvas
72 x 72 x 2 in
182.9 x 182.9 x 5.1 cm
4884
This painting of NBA superstar Earvin “Magic” Johnson memorializes the moment, on November 7th, 1991, when Johnson stunned the world by publicly announcing he had tested positive for HIV. As...
Read more
This painting of NBA superstar Earvin “Magic” Johnson memorializes the moment, on November 7th, 1991, when Johnson stunned the world by publicly announcing he had tested positive for HIV.

As a heterosexual celebrity, Johnson broke new ground with his announcement, although LGBTQ+ celebrities coming forward (or being outed) for being HIV/AIDS positive was not an especially uncommon headline. Queer icon Freddie Mercury would die from AIDS-related pneumonia only 17 days after Johnson’s announcement, joining Rock Hudson (1985), Liberace (1987), Robert Mapplethorpe (1989), and Keith Haring (1990) who had already succumbed to the disease, and numerous others, including Brown (1997), whose lives it would claim in subsequent years.

With characteristic wit and poignancy, Brown’s painting pinpoints the hypocrisy of a society that at the time notoriously falsely pretended the HIV virus only infect members of the gay community and intravenous drug users.

The AIDS epidemic "officially" began in 1981 when the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention identified unusual outbreaks of pneumonia among gay men in Los Angeles. A year later, the CDC published a further report proposing that a sexually transmitted infection may be the cause for related outbreaks nationwide. The condition was called “Gay-related Immune Deficiency” (“GRID”) in these early reports, ignoring data about straight people who were experiencing similar issues.

As the disease reached popular consciousness and became part of national discourse, the fixation on its pervasiveness in queer spaces dominated much of the dialog. Earning nicknames such as “The Gay Plague” and “Homosexual Syndrome” it was a common misconception throughout much of the 1980s that HIV/AIDS was exclusively transmitted between gay men. This misinformation was fueled by political positioning and in some instances, furor from religious zealots who proposed the epidemic was the result of God’s wrath.

Brown's treatment of the subject deftly satirizes such distractions, admonishing them as the sideshow spectacles that they are.
Close full details

Literature

Made when Magic Johnson came out as HIV positive, Brown wanted to acknowledge the heterosexuals can be positive too.

Share
  • Facebook
  • X
  • Pinterest
  • Tumblr
  • Email
Previous
|
Next
1269 
of  1668
Related artworks
  • Firelei Báez, Magnitude and Bond, 2018
    Firelei Báez
    Magnitude and Bond, 2018
    Acrylic/Oil on canvas, Custom Made, Foldable Aluminum Stretchers
    108 x 192 in
    274.3 x 487.7 cm

Contact: +1  708-480-2882

General Inquiries: info@kavigupta.com

Media Inquiries: media@kavigupta.com

Client & Sales Inquiries: client@kavigupta.com

Publications: Kavi Gupta Editions

Facebook Twitter Instagram Newsletter

Kavi Gupta Washington Blvd

835 W. Washington Blvd. Chicago, IL 60607

Hours | Tue–Fri: 11 am–6 pm, Sat: 12 pm–5 pm

Kavi Gupta Elizabeth St

219 N. Elizabeth St. Chicago, IL 60607 
Hours | By appointment only

 

 

Kavi Gupta Warehouse

2108 S. California Ave. Chicago, IL 60608

Kavi Gupta New Buffalo

215 E. Buffalo St. #219 New Buffalo, MI 49117

Instagram, opens in a new tab.
Artsy, opens in a new tab.
Join the mailing list
View on Google Maps
Ocula, opens in a new tab.
Manage cookies
2025 Kavi Gupta
Site by Artlogic

This website uses cookies
This site uses cookies to help make it more useful to you. Please contact us to find out more about our Cookie Policy.

Manage cookies
Accept

Cookie preferences

Check the boxes for the cookie categories you allow our site to use

Cookie options
Required for the website to function and cannot be disabled.
Improve your experience on the website by storing choices you make about how it should function.
Allow us to collect anonymous usage data in order to improve the experience on our website.
Allow us to identify our visitors so that we can offer personalised, targeted marketing.
Save preferences