Boy with Trees of Heaven (Steve) comes in a dark moment in Brown’s life, a quiet companion to the more bombastic Peach Light. In 1984, Brown’s creative output was decidedly grim, with paintings including Malibu (featuring Californian wildfires), A Dead Duck, Acid Rain, and Nuclear Winter. More personally, Cancer depicts a torso riddled with tumors; Raven and The Final Arbi-ter plainly depict symbols of death centered on the frame; and rather unmistakably, The Plague paints an early awareness of what the HIV/AIDS crisis really was. Even a more cartoonish piece like Tales of the Decameron finds its roots in the macabre, as a portion of the audience may not recognize the title’s reference to Boccaccio’s 14th Century novella series about young people passing the time during a quarantine by telling stories, biding time out in the country outside plague-ridden Florence.

Boy with Trees of Heaven (Steve) sits somewhere at the periphery of this dark moment in Brown’s creative practice. Amid the melancholic and bitter paintings of his 1980s a number of resolutely queer silhouettes would stand firm against the challenges of the day. “Steve” would appear again the following year in a piece titled Steve with the Head of Goliath, a clear statement about an underdog defeating the seemingly insurmountable, also surrounded by trees of heaven. Another piece that same year, though not identified as Steve, likewise would step up to paint a picture plainly about gay male identity, featuring a masturbating figure surrounded by trees of heaven, lengthily titled Boy Startled While Jerking Off in the Woods, or, What’s the Point About Beating Around the Bush? Or Why is it OK to Show Mapplethorpe’s but not Mine? These powerful statements pair with a piece like Pediment, also 1985, depicting three anonymous men holding hands, surrounded by the same foliage, a hopeful statement about togetherness and the possibility of the future.