1983, Andy Warhol, Robert Mapplethorpe -- San Francisco Museum of Modern Art
From the museum label: Warhol and photographer Robert Mapplethorpe were two of the most important portraitists of their time, capturing images of Dolly Parton, Elizabeth Taylor, and Patti Smith. In 1983 they created their first portraits of one another. After taking roughly sixty Polaroids of Mapplethorpe, Warhol selected two photographs and purposefully misaligned and superimposed the photographer's face several times. The result obscures Mapplethorpe's features, yet the intensity of his gaze remains. The absence of color nods to how Mapplethorpe worked almost exclusively in black and white. Three years later Warhol and Mapplethorpe would make portraits of each other again, just one year before Warhol passed away.
1983, Andy Warhol, Robert Mapplethorpe -- San Francisco Museum of Modern Art
From the museum label: Warhol and photographer Robert Mapplethorpe were two of the most important portraitists of their time, capturing images of Dolly Parton, Elizabeth Taylor, and Patti Smith. In 1983 they created their first portraits of one another. After taking roughly sixty Polaroids of Mapplethorpe, Warhol selected two photographs and purposefully misaligned and superimposed the photographer's face several times. The result obscures Mapplethorpe's features, yet the intensity of his gaze remains. The absence of color nods to how Mapplethorpe worked almost exclusively in black and white. Three years later Warhol and Mapplethorpe would make portraits of each other again, just one year before Warhol passed away.