at Independent 20th Century, September 24-27, 2026

The Andy Warhol Foundation for the Visual Arts is pleased to announce Andy Warhol: Love, Sex, and Desire, a selection of Warhol’s 1950s, intimate, erotic, and seductive ink drawings curated by Michael Dayton Hermann that celebrate the beauty of the male figure at the fifth edition of Independent 20th Century, September 24 – 27, 2026.

Well before his rise to Pop Art fame, Warhol created a number of tender, sometimes explicit drawings that convey the allure and beauty of the male figure. He intended to include them in a book he called his “Boy Book.” An exhibition of similar drawings opened at Bodley Gallery on Valentine’s Day in 1956, a time when sodomy was a felony in every state and full-frontal male nudity was considered obscene. As Warhol’s former lover, the artist and poet John Giorno explained, “Andy was a gay man and worked with the homoerotic. In the homophobic 1950s, this was daring and heroic. A great risk.” Warhol created hundreds of these elegant line-drawings, and it wasn’t until 2020 that the Warhol Foundation and Taschen finally realized his original ambition with Andy Warhol. Love, Sex, and Desire. Drawings 1950–1962 (2020), conceived and edited by Michael Dayton Hermann, which is being republished this autumn in an expanded, medium-format edition.

“Warhol never shied away from pushing boundaries, whether artistic, cultural, or social. These drawings were daring when he made them in the 1950s. Today, as personal expression and individual freedoms are once again being contested, their unapologetic celebration of individuality and queer sexuality feels especially relevant,” said Michael Dayton Hermann, Managing Director of Strategic Initiatives. “Warhol’s spirit of experimentation, openness, and risk-taking is central to his legacy and continues to guide the work of the Foundation as we support artists who challenge conventions and expand the possibilities of contemporary art.”

Presented in the renowned Breuer building—the former home of the Whitney Museum of American Art, where Warhol’s major exhibition Andy Warhol: Portraits of the 70s was held in 1979—these works transform queer private desire into a public expression of dignity. They assert love and carnal attraction as forms of personal and political freedom, underscoring Warhol’s role as a nonconformist and trailblazer. The drawings are intimate and tender depictions of men, together and alone, sometimes rendered coyly and sweetly, and other times frank and unreserved. Undoubtedly, they are prime examples of Warhol’s command of line-drawing and his ability to capture the exhilaration of lust, passion, and sex.

In addition to his work as an artist, Warhol was a philanthropic visionary, having established The Andy Warhol Foundation for the Visual Arts with a mission to advance the visual arts. Proceeds from the sales of these drawings will contribute to the foundation’s innovative and flexible grants program. To date, it has donated 52,786 works of art to 322 institutions worldwide and awarded $350 million in cash grants to over 1,000 arts organizations across 50 states and abroad, supporting projects that challenge the status quo and push the field in new directions through risk-taking and experimentation – the twin engines that drove Warhol himself.