‘American Beauty’, Bob Colacello, Andy Warhol, and Chris Murray

Online auction house Paddle8 recently presented Bob Colacello: Art, Photographs, and Memorabilia from the Warhol Years. The featured image was Paul Weiss’ portrait of Warhol, Colacello, and myself and was part of Weiss’ photographic series American Beauty. The photo was taken at his studio at The Corcoran College of Art + Design, where Warhol was doing a signing for his book Exposures which was edited by Colacello. In 1979 Govinda Gallery exhibited Warhol’s photographs from Exposures along with Colacello’s photographs from his Interview Magazine column Out. Here is Paddle8’s description of Weiss’ photograph…

“Christopher Murray was a fellow alumnus of Bob’s at Georgetown University. Murray opened a gallery in Washington, Govinda Gallery, where he showed mostly photographers, including Annie Leibovitz and Bob himself. At the time the photograph was taken, Murray was showing the work of Paul Weiss who was then engaged in a doing a series of men in lady’s hats. Murray asked Bob whether Andy would pose and the result was to have photographs of all three dressed in delicate fascinators and suits and several solo portraits of Andy. For Bob, ‘Bob in Drag,’ evoked memories of growing up in Brooklyn and Long Island where he donned his mother’s and grandmother’s hats to “entertain the grownups.” The photograph is one of Bob’s favorite.”