3/19/2008

Robert Mapplethorpe -Alexander Iolas

Louise Bourgeois



Self-Portrait

Self-Portrait, 1988. Platinum print, Sheet: 26 1/2 x 22 inches; Image: 23 x 19 inches. Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, Gift, The Robert Mapplethorpe Foundation, 1993. 93.4305.




Robert Mapplethorpe arrived in New York in the 1970s amid two simultaneous but disparate events: the rise of the market for photography as a fine art, and the explosion of punk and gay cultures. Originally trained in painting and sculpture, Mapplethorpe gravitated toward photography, first making erotic collages in 1969–70 with images cut from magazines, then creating his own images using a Polaroid camera. Within a few years he was exhibiting erotic male and female nudes, still lifes of flowers, and celebrity portraits, all made with a large-format camera. By the late 1970s his work had developed into a style that was at once classical and stylish yet retained the explicit homoerotic themes for which the artist is perhaps best known. Mapplethorpe’s subject matter made his work a lightning rod for the contentious debates on public funding for the visual arts during the 1980s that would ultimately decimate the federal government’s support for artists. However, this legacy of controversy tends to overshadow Mapplethorpe’s aesthetic impact.

Although he occasionally worked with color, Mapplethorpe remained devoted to the minimal elegance of black-and-white photography, using the medium in part as an agent to explore certain paradoxes and binary relationships. In many of his works, for example, the distinction between male and female is problematized: in Ken and Tyler the male assumes the more traditionally femininized role of the nude, while Calla Lily takes an object used as a cipher of femininity and redeploys it as a male organ. The black male nude is often juxtaposed with an emphatically white object—a shroud, marble statuary, flowers, or, in the case of Ken and Tyler, another nude male.

Mapplethorpe’s sustained investigation of black-and-white photography may seem nostalgic next to the preference for color demonstrated by most artists working with photography in the 1980s. But his restricted palette, which recalls that of the modern masters whose work he emulated (especially George Platt Lynes), proved most effective at conveying the poetic and often melancholic quality of his subjects. At the height of his career, Mapplethorpe was stricken with AIDS. In contrast to earlier self-portraits in which Mapplethorpe assumed various personae such as rocker, leather fetishist, cross-dresser, fashion plate, and so on, Self-Portrait, taken about a year before his death, has a more somber mood. The photograph serves as a haunting document of the artist’s transitory existence.




Derrick Cross

Charles
Self-Portrait

Apollo

Ajitto



Robert Mapplethorpe, Ron Simms






Robert Mapplethorpe, Ron Simms
Robert Mapplethorpe
Ron Simms
1980


Robert Mapplethorpe, George Bussey
Robert Mapplethorpe
George Bussey
1986


Robert Mapplethorpe, Thomas and Amos
Robert Mapplethorpe
Thomas and Amos
1987



Robert Mapplethorpe, Ken Moody
Robert Mapplethorpe
Ken Moody
1984


Robert Mapplethorpe, Phillip Prioleau (Cock)
Robert Mapplethorpe
Phillip Prioleau (Cock)
1980


Robert Mapplethorpe, Lily
Robert Mapplethorpe
Lily
1979



Robert Mapplethorpe, William Burroughs
Robert Mapplethorpe
William Burroughs
1980


Robert Mapplethorpe, Sam Wagstaff
Robert Mapplethorpe
Sam Wagstaff
1979


Robert Mapplethorpe, Patti Smith
Robert Mapplethorpe
Patti Smith
1987






Robert Mapplethorpe, Ron Simms
Robert Mapplethorpe
Ron Simms
1980
Robert Mapplethorpe, George Bussey
Robert Mapplethorpe
George Bussey
1986


Robert Mapplethorpe, Thomas and Amos
Robert Mapplethorpe
Thomas and Amos
1987


Robert Mapplethorpe, Ken Moody
Robert Mapplethorpe
Ken Moody
1984


Robert Mapplethorpe, Phillip Prioleau (Cock)
Robert Mapplethorpe
Phillip Prioleau (Cock)
1980


Robert Mapplethorpe, Lily
Robert Mapplethorpe
Lily
1979



Robert Mapplethorpe, William Burroughs
Robert Mapplethorpe
William Burroughs
1980


Robert Mapplethorpe, Sam Wagstaff
Robert Mapplethorpe
Sam Wagstaff
1979
y
Robert Mapplethorpe, Patti Smith
Robert Mapplethorpe
Patti Smith
1987



Robert Mapplethorpe, Lucinda Childs
Robert Mapplethorpe
Lucinda Childs
1977


Robert Mapplethorpe, Louise Nevelson
Robert Mapplethorpe
Louise Nevelson
1986


Robert Mapplethorpe, Alice Neel
Robert Mapplethorpe
Alice Neel
1984



Robert Mapplethorpe, Ariane
Robert Mapplethorpe
Ariane
1982

end time: Mar 19, 2008 1:00 PM EST

Robert Mapplethorpe, Self Portrait
Robert Mapplethorpe
Self Portrait
1980


Robert Mapplethorpe, Self Portrait
Robert Mapplethorpe
Self Portrait
1985


Robert Mapplethorpe, Francesco Clemente
Robert Mapplethorpe
Francesco Clemente
1985

Robert Mapplethorpe, David Hockney
Robert Mapplethorpe
David Hockney
19
y
Robert Mapplethorpe, Henry Geldzahler
Robert Mapplethorpe
Henry Geldzahler
1979



Robert Mapplethorpe, Andy Warhol
Robert Mapplethorpe
Andy Warhol
1983


Robert Mapplethorpe, Icarus
Robert Mapplethorpe
Icarus
1989


Robert Mapplethorpe, Marty and Veronica
Robert Mapplethorpe
Marty and Veronica
1982


Robert Mapplethorpe, Untitled
Robert Mapplethorpe
Untitled
1972


Robert Mapplethorpe, Untitled (Green Michael)
Robert Mapplethorpe
Untitled (Green Michael)
circa 1973

Robert Mapplethorpe, Calvin Cort
Robert Mapplethorpe
Calvin Cort
1975








Robert Mapplethorpe, John McKendry
Robert Mapplethorpe
John McKendry
1975


Robert Mapplethorpe, Untitled
Robert Mapplethorpe
Untitled
1971


Robert Mapplethorpe, Self Portrait
Robert Mapplethorpe
Self Portrait
1972



Robert Mapplethorpe, Wrestler
Robert Mapplethorpe
Wrestler
1989


Robert Mapplethorpe, Parrot Tulip
Robert Mapplethorpe
Parrot Tulip
1986


Robert Mapplethorpe, Calla Lily
Robert Mapplethorpe
Calla Lily
1986



Robert Mapplethorpe, Derrick Cross
Robert Mapplethorpe
Derrick Cross
1983


Robert Mapplethorpe, Terrel (Weeping Man #739)
Robert Mapplethorpe
Terrel (Weeping Man #739)
1981

Robert Mapplethorpe, Self-Portrait (From The X Portfolio)
Robert Mapplethorpe
Self-Portrait (From The X Portfolio)
1978



Robert Mapplethorpe, Melody
Robert Mapplethorpe
Melody
1987


Robert Mapplethorpe, Andy Warhol (Leather Jacket)
Robert Mapplethorpe
Andy Warhol (Leather Jacket)
1986

Robert Mapplethorpe, Thomas
Robert Mapplethorpe
Thomas
1987


Robert Mapplethorpe, Iris
Robert Mapplethorpe
Iris
1989


Robert Mapplethorpe, Calla Lily
Robert Mapplethorpe
Calla Lily
1988


Robert Mapplethorpe, Tim Scott
Robert Mapplethorpe
Tim Scott
1980



Robert Mapplethorpe, Two Vases and Flower
Robert Mapplethorpe
Two Vases and Flower

Robert Mapplethorpe, Parrot Tulips
Robert Mapplethorpe
Parrot Tulips

Robert Mapplethorpe, Rose
Robert Mapplethorpe
Rose


Robert Mapplethorpe, Orchid
Robert Mapplethorpe
Orchid

Robert Mapplethorpe, Tulip
Robert Mapplethorpe
Tulip
1988


Robert Mapplethorpe, Protea
Robert Mapplethorpe
Protea
1988



Robert Mapplethorpe, Thomas
Robert Mapplethorpe
Thomas
198

Robert Mapplethorpe, Lisa Lyon with snake
Robert Mapplethorpe
Lisa Lyon with snake
1982

Robert Mapplethorpe, Lisa Lyon
Robert Mapplethorpe
Lisa Lyon
19

Robert Mapplethorpe, Tulips
Robert Mapplethorpe
Tulips
1979


Robert Mapplethorpe, Lily
Robert Mapplethorpe
Lily
1979


Robert Mapplethorpe, Grace Jones
Robert Mapplethorpe
Grace Jones
1984


Robert Mapplethorpe, Hyacinth
Robert Mapplethorpe
Hyacinth
1985


Robert Mapplethorpe, Iris
Robert Mapplethorpe
Iris
1982


Robert Mapplethorpe, Leaf
Robert Mapplethorpe
Leaf
198


Robert Mapplethorpe, Lydia Cheng
Robert Mapplethorpe
Lydia Cheng
1985


Robert Mapplethorpe, Flower
Robert Mapplethorpe
Flower
1985


Robert Mapplethorpe, Flower
Robert Mapplethorpe
Flower
1984



Robert Mapplethorpe, Man in Polyester Suit (ZC9)
Robert Mapplethorpe
Man in Polyester Suit (ZC9)
1980


Robert Mapplethorpe, Hooded Man
Robert Mapplethorpe
Hooded Man
1980


Robert Mapplethorpe, Untitled
Robert Mapplethorpe
Untitle

Robert Mapplethorpe, Untitled
Robert Mapplethorpe
Untitled

Robert Mapplethorpe, Untitled
Robert Mapplethorpe
Untitled
1980


Robert Mapplethorpe, Tom Scott
Robert Mapplethorpe
Tom Scott


Robert Mapplethorpe, Untitled
Robert Mapplethorpe
Untitled
1980


Robert Mapplethorpe, Untitled
Robert Mapplethorpe
Untitled
1980

Robert Mapplethorpe, Self-portrait
Robert Mapplethorpe
Self-portrait
1981



Robert Mapplethorpe, Smutty
Robert Mapplethorpe
Smutty
1980


Robert Mapplethorpe, Marty and Veronica
Robert Mapplethorpe
Marty and Veronica
1982


Robert Mapplethorpe, Self-Portrait #733 (with Gun and Star)
Robert Mapplethorpe
Self-Portrait #733 (with Gun and Star)
1983



Robert Mapplethorpe, Skull and Crossbone
Robert Mapplethorpe
Skull and Crossbone
1983


Robert Mapplethorpe, Candy Darling
Robert Mapplethorpe
Candy Darling
1972

Robert Mapplethorpe, Self Portrait
Robert Mapplethorpe
Self Portrait
1980







Robert Mapplethorpe, Phillip Prioleau (Cock)





Robert Mapplethorpe, Man in Polyester Suit (ZC9)



Robert Mapplethorpe, Thomas and Amos



Robert Mapplethorpe, Ron Simms





Large view of Self-Portrait


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