Ladies and Gentlemen 136 by Andy Warhol is one of ten screenprints from the artist’s Ladies and Gentlemen portfolio, created in 1975. This bold work captures Wilhelmina Ross, a celebrated drag performer and one of Warhol’s favorite models. Composed in vivid shades of purple, blue, and yellow, the print combines photographic precision with abstract collage. It radiates the vibrant energy of 1970s New York while exploring themes of identity, performance, and representation.
Warhol’s Shift Toward Photography and New Subjects
Ladies and Gentlemen 136 is based on a Polaroid photograph taken by Warhol using his Big Shot camera. After facing a copyright dispute over his Flowers series, Warhol began photographing his own subjects. This change in process brought him closer to the people he depicted and to the underground culture that shaped 1970s and 1980s New York. Through his lens, he found a new kind of celebrity—one rooted not in Hollywood but in the city’s queer nightlife.
Wilhelmina Ross and the Power of Presence
Warhol created seventy-three portraits of Wilhelmina Ross, more than of any other model in the series. In this print, she appears poised and contemplative, her hand raised delicately to her face. Warhol links her lips and hand with a band of pink, visually merging gesture and expression. The colors—purple, blue, yellow, and pink—echo the playful aesthetic of drag culture, hovering between glamour and rawness. The result is both tender and electric, revealing the strength and vulnerability that coexist in performance.
The Gilded Grape and the Origins of the Series
The idea for the Ladies and Gentlemen portfolio came from Italian art dealer Luciano Anselmino, a protégé of Alexander Iolas. Warhol took the suggestion and began photographing drag queens and transgender performers at the Gilded Grape, a small disco in Hell’s Kitchen. The club was a lively, inclusive space for drag performers, hustlers, and runaways—a mirror of The Factory’s chaotic creativity. Warhol sent his assistant Ronnie Cutrone and Interview editor Bob Colacello to recruit models, who were paid fifty dollars each to pose the following day at The Factory.
Representation, Ethics, and Earnest Depiction
While the series has drawn criticism for underpaying and failing to credit its models, it also stands as one of Warhol’s most human projects. The portraits reveal genuine admiration and curiosity. Warhol depicted his subjects not as spectacles but as individuals navigating identity, resilience, and performance. In this way, Ladies and Gentlemen 136 becomes both a celebration of drag and a record of the complex social realities surrounding it.
Ladies and Gentlemen 136 in Warhol’s Larger Body of Work
Ladies and Gentlemen 136 embodies Warhol’s late 1970s style, defined by Polaroid-based compositions, bold color blocking, and collage-like layering. The series connects stylistically to his later works such as the Mick Jagger prints, the Reigning Queens series, and portraits like George Gershwin 231. Together, these works mark Warhol’s evolution toward more intimate and psychologically charged subjects.
Photo Credit: Ronnie Cutrone (American, 1948–2013), Andy Warhol Photographing a Drag Queen (Marsha P. Johnson), 1975. Photograph. Image courtesy of Skarstedt Gallery.
