Andy Warhol was gay, of course, but museums never show Warhol’s raunchy male erotica silkscreen prints and drawings. It’s beneath them, I suppose. But, on rare occasion (only the 2nd time in the last 10 years of my obsessive gallery-going), New York galleries do exhibit Warhol’s smuttiest work, and my Sat. June 16 LGBT gallery tour will take advantage of one such occasion at a Chelsea gallery that happens to have a gay owner. You may call it art. You may call it pornography. I call it fascinating and thrilling work from one of the most important visionaries of the late 20th century. Just be sure not to miss it, as it will likely be years before a New York gallery again explores Warhol’s seamier side.

Warhol was painfully shy, and he also reportedly experienced intense Catholic guilt. But that didn’t stop him from exploring gay sex, or from drawing it. The works you’ll see on this tour started out as photographs of highly aroused male anatomy, which Warhol then silkscreened, and finally drew on top of the silkscreens. Some of the pieces are of solo men, and others are of two men getting it on. However, you won’t see any faces. Just lots of dick and ass. There’s nothing subtle about these works: they’re gloriously explicit and hard-edged. And yet they have a delicacy and lyricism as well, characteristic of Warhol’s signature silkscreen style – you have to take my word for it. Or don’t take my word – please judge for yourself.

Warhol’s is just one of 7 shows on the June 16 tour. Other highlights: (1) tender paintings of male couples by a gay artist who died of AIDS at age 32, and whose work has been ignored by the art world until now, and (2) a lesbian artist’s outrageous androgynous leather armatures.

This will be the final LGBT tour of the gallery season, which runs from September through June. After June 16, you’ll have to wait 3 months for the next one, then they’ll happen once a month, always showing art that’s completely different from all previous LGBT tours. Would you believe that the June 16 tour will be the 104-th LGBT tour I’ve led? It staggers the mind.

Rafael Risemberg, Ph.D.
Founder and Director
New York Gallery Tours