"Superstar Gerald Malanga in Andy Warhol’s 13 most beautiful boys"

gelatin silver print

signature stamp and title (ink) on verso, certificated

The Screen Tests are a series of 400 to 500 experimental films by Andy Warhol, which were mainly shot between 1964 and 1966 in the legendary "Silver Factory" in New York. As a rule, the person portrayed had to sit on a chair in front of a screen and was filmed with a still camera for three minutes. The time limit corresponds to the complete passage of a 16 mm film reel. There are always close-ups of the faces, sometimes only the mouth, an eye or another detail can be seen. The effect on the people filmed was extremely varied: some tried to appear cool and showed no emotion, others could not stand the psychological pressure and started to cry or walked away.
Warhol used some of the early screen tests in the films 13 Most Beautiful Women (1964) and 13 Most Beautiful Boys (1965). In the 40-minute silent films, black and white on 16 mm film, there is no plot, only portrait shots of each performer are shown, played back slightly slower than they were recorded.
Gerald Malanga was Warhol's first assistant and also worked on the Screen Tests. Malanga himself also appeared as an actor in other early experimental films by Warhol. In 1964, he had his first role in Kiss, where he acted with Mark Lancaster in accordance with the film's title, in Batman Dracula and in Couch in the same year, and in Vinyl in 1965. Malanga also took over some of the camera work from Warhol.
The end of the Silver Factory in 1968 also marked the end of his collaboration. Malanga went on a long trip to Italy before the Factory moved to Union Square and Warhol was angry about it; moreover, in February it became known that Malanga was trying to sell Warhol fakes in Rome.
(Christoph Fuchs, see Wikipedia)