Brad strips for art...but keeps his socks on

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Pitt on the front of Vanity Fair, part of a still-life series by impresario Robert Wilson

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Here is Brad Pitt as you've never seen him before. Clad in a pair of white boxer shorts, the 42-year-old Hollywood star oozes sex appeal.

But why is he still wearing socks and why does he appear to be standing in the rain? Not to mention the gun in his right hand. The answer, naturally, is art.

The image, which features on the cover of the latest edition of Vanity Fair, is the work of avant-garde New York impresario Robert Wilson.

Inspired by the work of Andy Warhol, he has shot stilllife videos of several A-list actors, including Pitt, Sean Penn, Willem Dafoe, Robert Downey Jr and Isabella Rossellini.

If you think Angelina Jolie's other half looks slightly odd in his socks, how about Wilson's interpretation of Winona Ryder - buried up to her shoulders in sand alongside a gun, toothbrush and bright red handbag?

It was inspired by the character Winnie in Samuel Beckett's play Happy Days. Wilson's subjects were asked to "think of nothing" and limit their movements to one or two slow-motion gestures.

The resulting high-definition video was then turned into a sequence, with each portrait costing about £20,000 to produce. The work will be displayed at New York galleries in January.

Wilson's next project is an event to commemorate the victims of totalitarianism, to be staged in Moscow's Red Square next summer, in front of president Vladimir Putin.

It will include illuminated portraits of some of the millions who perished under Joseph Stalin, 500 videos made by Russian children and a choir with members from across Russia performing a specially composed work.

• Vanity Fair is out on 9 November.

 

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