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Ladies and Gentlemen (Warhol series)
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. The series consists of 284 silkscreen prints.[1] BackgroundIn 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.[2] Anselmino recommended that Warhol paint portraits of drag queens.[2] 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."[2] 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."[2] 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.[3] During another trip to Europe in July 1974, Warhol's manager Fred Hughes brought Anselmino along.[4] 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 dei Diamanti, 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."[5][6] Colacello along with Warhol's assistant Ronnie Cutrone, and Vincent Fremont, the manager of the Factory, and makeup artist Corey Tippin found models for the series at the Gilded Grape, which was popular nightclub in the queer community, near Times Square in New York.[6][7] They would ask potential models to pose for "a friend" for $50 per 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.[6] On January 2, 1975, it was reported that Warhol was working on a series of portraits of transvestites.[8][9] SubjectsWarhol took over 500 photographs of 14 models. An official list of the Ladies and Gentlemen artworks was released by the Warhol Foundation in 2014. This included 13 names that they could identify:[10]
ExhibitionsA few portraits from the series were included in the retrospective of Warhol's artwork, Andy Warhol: Paintings 1962-1975, at the Baltimore Museum of Art from July 1975 to September 1975.[11][12][13] The complete series was displayed at the Palazzo dei Diamanti in Ferrara from October 1975 to December 1975.[14][15] An accompanied book of prints, Ladies and Gentlemen, was published by Gabriele Mazzotta in Milan.[16][17] Two portraits from the series were included in an exhibition of Warhol's artwork at the Greenberg Gallery in Clayton, Missouri from October 1975 to December 1975.[18] In 1994, the Baltimore Museum of Art acquired two portraits from the series.[19] In 2020, the series was shown at the Tate Modern in London.[20] Bibliography
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