A few months ago, we rounded up some fascinating footage of famous artists at work. But what about art stars who don’t exactly make the pieces they conceptualize? SFMOMA has unearthed a brief video of Andy Warhol in the studio with a blond man we only ever glimpse from the back or side, as they undertake the approximately minute-long process of printing a silkscreen portrait of Marlon Brando. As the writer Vanessa Place observes, “The Blond is wearing rubber household gloves; Warhol is not. The Blond’s gloves are stained. Warhol’s hands are not.” Warhol may have his hands on the fill blade, but it’s his assistant who’s really exerting the pressure. It’s easy to imagine that, were cameras not present, he might have participated even less in the physical creation of the print. We’ve read about how these images were created in the past, but there’s something more powerful — and, yes, more problematic — about seeing it for ourselves. Watch the clip below and let us know what it suggests to you.
[via Complex]