Querelle A27 (Green) is a 1982 screenprint by Andy Warhol. It features two young men in a provocative pose. Warhol based the image on a a photograph that he took in preparation for a film poster. That year, the German film director Rainer Fassbinder commissioned Warhol to design a poster for his film adaptation of Querelle, a novel by Jean Genet. Warhol’s fascination with underground cinema, homoerotic themes, and expressive portraiture made the project an idea match for his sensibilities.
The film tells the story of Georges Querelle, a sailor journeying into the sexual underworld of a French port. Warhol’s poster design draws on the film’s tension. In the image, he focuses attention on a dramatically red, suggestively licking tongue, set against the pale, bare shoulders of two entwined men. The composition combines photographic realism with hand-drawn and screenprinting elements, characteristic of Warhol’s 1980s work.
Querelle IIIA.27 (Green) as Part of Andy Warhol’s Larger Body of Work
Warhol created Querelle A27 (Green) at a time when his interest in film, celebrity, and identity was evolving. Genet’s 1947 novel Querelle de Brest, published in 1953, was long considered scandalous for its violent and homoerotic content. It’s no surprise that Genet’s story of the sailor, opium dealer and murderer Georges Querelle facinated both Fassbinder and Warhol. Fassbinder died of a drug overdose shortly after completing the film, adding a tragic notoriety to the project.
Warhol’s screenprint series—produced in multiple color variations and in an unpublished print run of unknown size—became a tribute to their shared creative vision. Together, they document a rare intersection of three provocative creative minds: Genet, Fassbinder and Warhol. Collectable prints like Querelle A27 (Green) are rare and unique works of art—from original pre-war advertisement posters, to contemporary exhibition prints, to out-of-print and hard-to-find gems.
Photo credits: Christopher Makos, 1982.
