“Andy Warhol: Motion Pictures focuses on the artist’s cinematic portraits and non-narrative, silent, and black-and-white films from the mid-1960s. Warhol’s Screen Tests reveal his lifelong fascination with the cult of celebrity, comprising a visual almanac of the 1960s downtown avant-garde scene.” –This is the intro to the exhibit running at MOMA until mid March.

The films, showing Warhol’s voyeuristic fascinations, feature the gals he dubbed “Superstars,” like Edie Sedgwick and Nico. The show also brings us to others Warhol dubbed interesting like music interpreter Lou Reed, poet Allen Ginsberg, and author Susan Sontag.

Early films included in the exhibition are Eat (1963) and Kiss (1963–64). Twelve Screen Tests in this exhibition are projected on the gallery walls at large scale.

Here’s a funny thing to ponder in this time of internet based interaction: Warhol made himself a social curator of people, picking characters who specifically appealed to him. But today, people self curate with web pages, blogs, and even their Facebook pages. That fact makes this exhibit a poignant and interesting relic.

Andy Warhol, Motion Pictures, until March 21st at MOMA 11 West 53rd Street, NYC.