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Ladies and Gentlemen is a 1975 series of paintings by Andy Warhol. Commissioned by Italian dealer Luciano Anselmino in 1974, the paintings depict Black American and Latinx transgender women and drag queens.
Background
In May 1974, pop artist Andy Warhol was approached by Italian dealer Luciano Anselmino in Torino about commissioning a series of large-edition prints and maybe paintings. Anselmino recommended that Warhol paint portraits of drag queens. According to Bob Colacello, who was the editor Interview magazine, Warhol said, "'Drag queens were out,' but Anselmino persisted, suggesting portraits of Candy, Jackie, and Holly. Andy said Candy was dead, and Jackie and Holly would drive him crazy, asking for more money every time they heard one had sold." Anselmino was asked by Warhol to come up with another idea, but later that day he brought up drag queens once more and said, "They shouldn't be beautiful transvestites who could pass for women, but funny-looking ones, with beards, who were obviously men trying to pass." Warhol reluctantly agreed and suggested that he could photograph Colacello. Even though Warhol offered to give him a portrait, Colacello insisted that he didn't want to be immortalized in drag.
During another trip to Europe in July 1974, Warhol's manager Fred Hughes brought Anselmino along. Anselmino informed Warhol that he had secured funding for the Drag Queen series, several hundred thousand dollars, as well as a museum in Ferrera, the Palazzo di Diamante, to display it. Upson returning to New York later that month, Colacello posed in drag for Warhol at the Factory, but Warhol decided the photos were "unusable."
Colacello along with Warhol's assistant Ronnie Cutrone, and Vincent Fremont, the manager of the Factory, found models for the series at the Gilded Grape, which was popular nightclub in the transgender community, near Times Square in New York. They would ask potential models to pose for "a friend" for $50 each half-hour. The following day, they would show up at the Factory, where Warhol, whom they never named, would take their Polaroids. Some of the models would say, "Tell your friend I do a lot more for fifty bucks" the following time they saw them at the Gilded Grape.
Subjects
The identity of 13 of the 14 people photographed are known:
- Marsha P. Johnson
- Alphanso Panell
- Iris
- Wilhelmina Ross
- Broadway
- Easha McCleary
- Helen/Harry Morales
- Ivette
- Kim
- Lurdes
- Michele Long
- Monique and Vicki Peters
Exhibitions
The series was later renamed Ladies and Gentlemen and displayed at the Palazzo dei Diamanti in Ferrara in 1975. The works were later shown at Tate Modern in 2020.
Bibliography
- Colacello, Bob (1990). Holy Terror: Andy Warhol Close Up. New York: HarperCollins. ISBN 9780060164195.
References
- ^ Colacello 1990, p. 221.
- Colacello 1990, p. 222.
- Colacello 1990, p. 227.
- "November 2010 Daily Warhol Film and Video Screenings". The Andy Warhol Museum. Retrieved 2025-01-06.
- ^ Colacello 1990, p. 228.
- Bromovsky, Jess (August 30, 2024). "A Look at Andy Warhol's Ladies and Gentleman Series". MyArtBroker. Retrieved 2025-01-06.
- "Rare Andy Warhol drag queen portraits go on show in Tate Modern exhibition". The Art Newspaper - International art news and events. 2020-03-10. Retrieved 2025-01-06.
