I am not sure from which Kiss project this clip is. If it’s from “Naomi and Rufs kiss” than these are just a eight minutes from the full feature which is 54 minutes of kissing. Otherwise it’s just one clip from a series of Kiss short movies.

Here is some background taken from this great Warhol site:

ca. AUGUST 1963: ANDY WARHOL SHOOTS KISS.

Some Warhol scholars date the Kiss films from November/December 1963. However, Warhol probably started shooting them much earlier - around August 1963 and continued to shoot them through the end of 1964, if not beyond. (SG144/CA) According to Warhol in Popism, they were still doing KISS movies in the summer of 1964 when Gerard Malanga and Mark Lancaster did one - in August 1964. (POP71/M)

According to Bob Colacello, the idea for KISS - close-ups of couples kissing each other for three minutes each - came from the old Hayes Office regulation forbidding actors in movies from touching lips for more than three seconds. (BC29)

Warhol also produced a silkscreen called The Kiss, based on a film still from the Hollywood horror classic Dracula (1931) of Bela Lugosi biting the neck of his co-star, Helen Chandler.The silkscreen was done on November 22, 1963. (GMW81)

Amy Taubin, who would later become the film critic for the Village Voice, first saw some of the KISS films in 1963 at the Grammercy Arts Theater on West 27th Street. At this time the KISS series of films was called The Andy Warhol Serial “because it was shown in weekly four minute installments.” (WI24)

*Send in by OliviaB - thanks darling*

To be honest I am still surprised about Mr Warhols fame. He certainly was a great artist, but his work (in my eyes) are not as breath taking and special as Picasso’s. But I guess ‘The Factory’ which was not only just a cool place, but a celebrity hang out that played an important role. He was well connected and created his own fans and market in one go. I guess at a certain point he simply was a social anchor as well as Godfather to anything related to art in New York?

Another part of his fame is his commercial ’soup art’ - his understanding how to create mass media compatible mass art. I think in that respect he was truly groundbreaking:

In the future, everyone will be world famous for 15 minutes.

I think in this quote he summed up everything you need to know about today’s media society (although today it’s 15 seconds of fame on YouTube). His art reflected mass produced images of the same people / themes over and over again. Art was no longer an unique object, but a mass produced variation of an idea / topic.

Mr Warhol was not just a rich and famous person. He also did volunteer work for social institutions. He not only painted soup, he also handed it out. This - more then anything - honors him.

More? Wikipedia