THE STORY AS TOLD TO US OR HOW LESLIE-LOHMAN ACQUIRED THESE TWO IMAGES
By Charles Leslie

When Andy Warhol's friend and frequent companion, Victor Hugo, brought us this drawing — done on the back of an Air India menu — and three screened party invitation "covers," he related the following concerning their origins and explained that the title of the drawing is Victor Hugo's Cock.

THE DRAWING
Once when Warhol and Victor Hugo were on a very long Air India flight together Hugo became bored and said to Warhol, "Draw a picture of me." Warhol, responding, took the filler out of the evening's menu, and produced the drawing you see, all the while referencing Victor Hugo's face as if he were doing a portrait. He signed it not only once, but twice, and gave it to Hugo. On the verso (the exterior of the menu) Warhol drew an amyl nitrate ampule: a "popper." The popper is visible when the picture is turned over because the back of the framing is also glass.

THE PARTY INVITATION "COVER"
The famous American clothing designer/couturier Halston was a close friend of Warhol's. Victor Hugo was fuzzy about the dates but at a certain point Halston gave a lavish party to which he invited all his male guests, straight or gay, to come in drag if they felt so inclined. Hugo could not remember whether it was Halston or Warhol who proposed the idea, but Warhol produced a series of the screened image you see here to function as an invitation "cover." The model for the starting-point photographs was, of course, Victor Hugo. We have no idea now who received these invitations, but if any of the recipients had any idea that the artwork, although un-signed, was done by Warhol, it seems certain that there must be some surviving examples floating about out there somewhere.