Warhol’s voyeuristic interest in the male body can be seen throughout his oeuvre, especially in films such as ‘Sleep’ of 1963 and his stitched photographs of 1986. This fascination is first evident in his early line drawings of young men from the mid to late 1950s, of which many were included in his ‘Drawings for a Boy Book’ exhibition at the Bodley Gallery, New York in 1956. Warhol insisted that intense concentration on a subject drained it of content, with the end result being largely abstract. Here, Warhol depicts a young man whose facial features have been reduced to individual decorative shapes. The stars and stripes in the background are an early example of Warhol's use of iconic American symbols, which would later include Coca-Cola bottles, Campbell’s soup cans and film stars.