Pride Month: Andy Warhol
Torso, Andy Warhol, 1977
Written by Grace Russell
In his 1977 series of polaroid photos, “Sex Parts and Torsos,” Andy Warhol blurred the lines between the worlds of pornography and art, expressing the importance of the human body. The idea for these images came when Warhol was approached by a stranger boasting about the size of his appendage, leading Warhol to photograph said anatomy and put the photos in a box labeled “Sex Parts.”
The tamer and less explicit “Torso” images evoke the tradition of classical nudes, taken on a 35mm camera and a Polaroid Big Shot. The series features multiple anonymous models from gay bathhouses and clubs recruited by Warhol's assistant, Victor Hugo. Given the images’ resemblance to nude photos, Warhol labeled them "landscapes" to ensure their place in the art world, according to associate Bob Colacello.
“‘Just tell them it's art, Bob,’” Colacello recounted Warhol telling him. “‘They're landscapes.’”
The “Torso” images are taken of predominantly male bodies, focused on the area between the lower bust to the tops of the thighs. They show different builds, from muscular to soft, hairy to bare. The subjects in the images are captured in various positions and angles, showing off the human body to the viewer.
The series began when the U.S. was becoming more liberal in many aspects, while the gay liberation movement of the 1970s was in full swing. As a result, Warhol began to focus more on LGBTQ material in his art. While his sexuality was known throughout small circles, Warhol tended to keep it as private as possible. Still, through the completion of the series, these images were significant in explaining who Warhol was as a person and instrumental as one of the last steps to Warhol's full acceptance of his sexuality.
