When Andy Warhol was new to New York in the 1950s, he sought proximity to the Manhattan art scene – and was cut off. He was “too effeminate,” a friend explained to him when asked. The male world of abstract expressionism, which set the tone at the time, was “naturally homosexual in its emotional state,” the scene expert continued to the newcomer. But on the outside, they behaved like macho men. This anecdote, which Warhol tells in the first pages of his second biographical book “POPism” in 1980, gives a brief summary of what being gay meant in post-war America. Despite sometimes strict laws against free self-determination, there were free spaces in which queerness was a given, albeit masked by dominant masculinity.
“Andy Warhol – Velvet Rage and Beauty” in the New National Gallery – Culture
