Billy Boy*

Andy Warhol
United States of America
1928 – 1987

Billy Boy*
1986
gelatin-silver photograph
Place made
London
Medium
gelatin-silver photograph
Dimensions
25.3 x 20.2 cm (image & sheet)
Credit line
V.B. F. Young Bequest Fund and d’Auvergne Boxall Bequest Fund 2018
Accession number
20182Ph24
Signature and date
Not signed. Not dated.
Provenance
Estate of Andy Warhol; the Andy Warhol Foundation for the Visual Arts; Christie’s, New York.
Media category
Photograph
Collection area
American photographs
Copyright
© Andy Warhol Foundation for the Visual Arts, Inc. ARS/Copyright Agency

  • WALL LABEL: Andy Warhol and Photography: A Social Media, 2023


    Warhol’s friend Billyboy* (his name was always followed by an asterisk) was a fashion and jewellery designer. 

     

    This photograph was taken in London in July 1986, during the week Warhol spent there for the opening of his Self Portrait exhibition at Anthony d’Offay Gallery. Billy Boy* travelled to London for the opening and, according to Warhol, was ‘constantly around’, including turning up at Warhol’s hotel suite for breakfast one morning.

     

    This image was taken in Warhol’s hotel suite, where Warhol snapped twelve shots of Billy Boy* seated, the contact sheet (Stanford University Library) revealing that Billy Boy* didn’t really want to be photographed and was attempting to obscure his face with his arms, hands and a cushion. In this photograph Warhol draws our attention to Billy Boy’s elegant hands, which obscure his face, and his distinctive Givenchy pillbox hat, with a zebra print.

     

    Julie Robinson, Senior Curator, Prints, Drawings & Photographs

     

  • Andy Warhol and Photography: A Social Media

    Art Gallery of South Australia, 3 March 2023 – 14 May 2023