Video Reveals What Andy Warhol Really Did in the Studio

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]

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I thought Flavorwire is a little more informed than this, when it comes to art. The question of authorship in this vein is something covered in Visual Culture /Art 101 for first year art students. Perhaps it's easier for you to think of Andy Warhol as a kind of Creative Director, or a film director- which is also what he was. The director pools the skills of others, with or without touching anything physically, but it's his/ her word on the resulting "object" (or whatever other ephemeral expression might result) that is released to the public. Part of what also made Warhol a significant artist of his time was his critique of the art market as a business, by calling into question the importance placed on the uniqueness of a single work of art, through the blood, sweat and tears of a lone (male) "genius" creator- by having others make his pieces for him, and in multiple copies, as if out a FACTORY, mirroring American society itself. ...and yes, that's Gerard Malanga- his well-known assistant /collaborator, etc.

Problematic in what respect? Whose idea was it? Who decided on the source image, the technique, the materials, etc? I don't happen to care for Warhol but he was, at least, his own brand.

Taking an artist less seriously because they get an assistant to do the drudge work is crazy. Artists of all ilks have been doing it throughout the centuries. from the likes of the Renaissance painters to Henri Cartier-Bresson as well as many contemporary ones as well.

As Gore Vidal put it, "Andy Warhol is the only genius I've ever known with an IQ of 60."

The Blonde is Gerard Malanga, Warhol's assistant.