Mazzotta Editore (Italy)

Mazzotta Editore is an Italian publishing house focused on 20th century art and social sciences, founded in 1966. In 1975, they published Andy Warhol’s Ladies and Gentlemen (FS II.127). This print was part of Warhol’s larger Ladies and Gentlemen series in which Warhol explored gender identity and the underground subculture of drag queens within 1980’s Manhattan. This print in particular was published by Mazzotta Editore of Milan and was inspired by Luciano Anselmino (a protegeé of art dealer Alexander Iolas) who asked Warhol to do a series centered on drag queens. Warhol took his advice and created portraits of various prominent queens who frequented The Gilded Grape night club in NYC.