QUEER STUDIES, SHIFTING IDENTITIES

The radical notion that individuals are in fact free to forge their own personae, social strictures notwithstanding, is a guiding principle in the art of drag, which, like all things artificial, fascinated Warhol. Artists such as Nan Goldin, Catherine Opie, and Robert Mapplethorpe have extended his investigation of the myriad ways in which people can visually constitute their innate or chosen identities, sometimes going beyond Warhol to suggest that, when fashioning selfhood, the “natural” and the “assumed” are of equal worth or even indistinguishable.

Andy Warhol's 'Ladies and Gentlemen,' 1975
The Andy Warhol Museum, Pittsburgh; Founding Collection
Contribution Dia Center for the Arts.