In 1975, Andy Warhol undertook a series of portraits of New York City transvestites, most of whom were recruited by Bob Colacello from a club called The Gilded Grape. The method for making these portraits followed Warhol’s customary formula: a Polaroid portrait of the sitter was silkscreened onto a canvas, which was then embellished with synthetic polymer paint in a bright array of red, pinks, yellows and pastels. Warhol’s transvestites are portrayed in a fairly classical fashion, neck-up, often at a three-quarter angle, and beckon at the viewer with a variety of expressions, from the plaintive to the coquettish to the triumphant. This beautifully produced monograph features 40 spot-varnished color reproductions of the Ladies and Gentlemen series, and reprints the Italian film-maker and poet Pier Paolo Pasolini’s fascinating and unusual take on Warhol and on the series.
"Is not the effort made by these 'Transvestites' to show themselves in a triumphant-looking mood suffused with wishful thinking and touching humanity? But beyond this effort they do not go. Naturally, the 'Different' in its permissive New York ghetto can triumph provided it does not go outside a behaviour by which it can be recognized and tolerated the feminine arrogance of these males is merely the grimace of the victim who wants to soften the slaughterer's heart with a clownish regal dignity. And it's this wry smile which makes the Transvestites all the same, like Byzantine dignitaries in a star-spangled apse."
Pier Paolo Pasolini, excerpted from Andy Warhol's Ladies and Gentlemen in Andy Warhol: Ladies and Gentlemen.
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