About the Work
An exceptionally rare original theatre poster for Vain Victory: The Vicissitudes of the Damned, the landmark Off-Off-Broadway musical written and performed by Jackie Curtis in New York City in 1971.
First presented at La MaMa Experimental Theatre Club in May 1971 and later staged at the WPA Theatre on the Bowery, Vain Victory brought together a constantly evolving ensemble that included Candy Darling, Holly Woodlawn, Agosto Machado, Mario Montez, Ondine and other central figures from the intersecting worlds of Andy Warhol’s Factory and New York’s Theatre of the Ridiculous. Bob Gruen documented the production’s rehearsals and performances, creating an extraordinary visual record of this radical downtown community.
More than a piece of theatrical ephemera, this poster is a surviving primary document from a transformative moment in New York cultural history. Jackie Curtis, Candy Darling and Holly Woodlawn challenged conventional distinctions between gender, theatre, fashion, music and everyday life, helping establish a creative language whose influence would extend far beyond the underground. Their names and stories entered popular mythology the following year through Lou Reed’s Walk on the Wild Side, but objects such as this restore them to their original context: not simply as characters in a song, but as artists and cultural pioneers who helped invent the future.
The poster forms part of The Music Photo Gallery’s Walk on the Wild Side collection and was presented within Vain Victory, Women in Revolt, curated by Julien Frydman for Paris Photo 2022.
