Andy WARHOL - Ladies and Gentlemen (FS II.29)

Title: Ladies and Gentlemen 129
Medium: Screenprint on Arches Paper
Year: 1975
Size: 43 1/3” x 28 ½”
Details: Edition of 250, signed, numbered, and dated ’75 in pencil on verso.

Andy Warhol created Ladies and Gentlemen 129 for his portfolio of 10 screenprints in 1975. Warhol went to the famous New York nightclub The Gilded Grape, which was frequented by drag queens. Warhol told the ladies to post however they wanted for photos he took with a Polaroid camera. He then transferred the images to silkscreen and overlaid them with vibrant blocks of color. Ladies and Gentlemen 129 shows one drag queen’s profile with a pop art makeover. This was the same process he typically used for his celebrity portraits, however the focus shifted from the well-known and celebrated icons and centered the attention to the black and Latino drag queens featured in his Ladies and Gentlemen portfolio.