Fridae

The man who helped create the red ribbon as an international symbol for AIDS awareness in 1991, died on Sunday, Newsday reports.

Frank C. Moore II who was a prominent New York City painter passed away due to AIDS-related complications in a Manhattan hospital. He was 48.

He was an active board member of Visual AIDS, a group that raises money to help fund artists with HIV/AIDS. He was instrumental in conceiving of the overlapping red ribbon as a symbol for AIDS awareness which has since become an international symbol of the fight against the virus.

Several of Moore's paintings were included in the 1995 Whitney Biennial, a prestigious showcase of contemporary artists. His works are also part of the permanent collections at New York's Museum of Modern Art and the Whitney as well as at the Albright-Knox Art Gallery in Buffalo. The Yale graduate described his paintings as a "journey of his long battle with HIV."

A book of his work, titled Between Life & Death, will be published in May by Twin Palms Press.

Moore is survived by his partner, Patrick Orton of Manhattan, and by several family members. Moore was cremated. A memorial service has yet to been scheduled.