Robert Mapplethorpe
Encyclopedia
Robert Mapplethorpe was an American
photographer, known for his large-scale, highly stylized black and white portraits, photos of flowers and nude men. The frank homoeroticism
of some of the work of his middle period triggered a more general controversy about the public funding of artworks.
, New York. His parents were Harry and Joan Mapplethorpe and he grew up with five brothers and sisters. He studied for a B.F.A. from the Pratt Institute
in Brooklyn
, where he majored in graphic arts, though he dropped out in 1969 before finishing his degree. Mapplethorpe lived with his partner Patti Smith
from 1967–1974, and she supported him by working in bookstores. They created art together, and even after he realized he was gay, they maintained a close relationship.
Mapplethorpe took his first photographs soon thereafter using a Polaroid camera. In the mid-1970s, he acquired a Hasselblad
medium-format camera and began taking photographs of a wide circle of friends and acquaintances, including artists, composers, and socialites. In the 1980s he refined his aesthetic, photographing statuesque male and female nudes, delicate flower still-lifes, and highly formal portraits of artists and celebrities. Mapplethorpe's first studio was at 24 Bond Street in Manhattan. In the 1980s, his mentor and lifetime companion art curator Sam Wagstaff
gave him $500,000 to buy the top-floor loft at 35 West 23rd Street, where he lived and had his shooting space. He kept the Bond Street loft as his darkroom.
Mapplethorpe died on the morning of March 9, 1989, 42 years old, in a Boston, Massachusetts, hospital from complications arising from AIDS
. His body was cremated and the ashes buried in Queens
, New York
, in his mother's grave, marked "Maxey".
Nearly a year before his death, the ailing Mapplethorpe helped found the Robert Mapplethorpe Foundation, Inc. His vision for the Foundation was that it would be "the appropriate vehicle to protect his work, to advance his creative vision, and to promote the causes he cared about". Since his death, the Foundation has not only functioned as his official estate and helped promote his work throughout the world, it has also raised and donated millions of dollars to fund medical research in the fight against AIDS and HIV infection.
, and celebrities, including Andy Warhol
, Deborah Harry
, Richard Gere
, Peter Gabriel
, Grace Jones
, and Patti Smith
. Smith was a longtime roommate of Mapplethorpe and a frequent subject in his photography, including a stark, iconic photograph that appears on the cover of Smith's first album, Horses
. Also, a Patti Smith portrait from 1986 recalls Albrecht Dürer
's 1500 self-portrait.
Other work includes homoerotic and BDSM
acts (including coprophagia
), and classical nudes. Mapplethorpe's X Portfolio series sparked national attention in the early 1990s when it was included in The Perfect Moment, a traveling exhibition funded by National Endowment for the Arts
. The portfolio includes some of Mapplethorpe's most explicit imagery, including a self-portrait with a bullwhip
inserted in his anus.
Though his work had been regularly displayed in publicly funded exhibitions, conservative and religious organizations, such as the American Family Association
, seized on this exhibition to vocally oppose government support for what they called "nothing more than the sensational presentation of potentially obscene material." As a result, Mapplethorpe became something of a cause célèbre
for both sides of the American Culture war
. The installation of The Perfect Moment in Cincinnati
resulted in the unsuccessful prosecution of the Contemporary Arts Center
of Cincinnati and its director, Dennis Barrie, on charges of "pandering obscenity".
His sexually charged photographs of black men have been criticized as exploitative. Such criticism was the subject of a work by American conceptual artist Glenn Ligon
, Notes on the Margins of the Black Book (1991–1993). Ligon juxtaposes Mapplethorpe's 91 images of black men in the 1988 publication Black Book with critical texts to complicate the racial undertones of the imagery.
in Washington, D.C., had agreed to be one of the host museums for the tour. Mapplethorpe decided to show his latest series that he explored shortly before his death. Titled Robert Mapplethorpe: The Perfect Moment, it was curated by Janet Kardon of the Institute of Contemporary Art
(ICA). The hierarchy of the Corcoran and several members of the U.S. Congress
were upset when the works were revealed to them, due to some of the content being homoerotic and sadomasochistically themed. The museum refused the exhibit's stop during the national tour.
In June 1989, pop art
ist Lowell Blair Nesbitt
became involved in the censorship issue. Nesbitt, a long-time friend of Mapplethorpe, revealed that he had a $1.5-million bequest to the museum in his will, but publicly promised that if the museum refused to host the exhibition, he would revoke the bequest. The Corcoran refused and Nesbitt bequeathed the money to the Phillips Collection
instead. After the Corcoran refused the Mapplethorpe exhibition, the underwriters of the exhibition went to the nonprofit Washington Project for the Arts
, which showed all the images in its space from July 21 to August 13, 1989, to large crowds.
In 1990, the Contemporary Arts Center
, and Dennis Barrie, were charged with obscenity. They were found not guilty by a jury.
According to the ICA, "The Corcoran's decision sparked a controversial national debate: Should tax dollars support the arts? Who decides what is "obscene" or "offensive" in public exhibitions? And if art can be considered a form of free speech, is it a violation of the First Amendment
to revoke federal funding on grounds of obscenity?
To this day, these questions remain very much at issue."
was involved in a controversy when a book by Mapplethorpe was confiscated. A final-year undergraduate student was writing a paper on the work of Robert Mapplethorpe and intended to illustrate the paper with a few photographs from Mapplethorpe, a book of the photographer's work. She took the photographs to the local chemist to be developed and the chemist informed West Midlands Police because of the unusual nature of the images. The police confiscated the library book from the student and informed the university that the book would have to be destroyed. If the university agreed to the destruction, no further action would be taken.
The university Vice-Chancellor, Dr. Peter Knight, supported by the Senate, took the view that the book was a legitimate book for the university library to hold and that the action of the police was a serious infringement of academic freedom. The Vice-Chancellor was interviewed by the police, under caution, with a view to prosecution under the terms of the Obscene Publications Acts.
After the interview with the Vice-Chancellor, a file was sent to the Crown Prosecution Service as the Director of Public Prosecutions has to take the decision as to whether or not to proceed with a trial. After a delay of about six months, the affair came to an end when Dr. Knight was informed by the DPP that no action would be taken.
dedicated to Mapplethorpe.
In September 1999, Arena Editions published Pictures, a monograph that reintroduced Mapplethorpe's sex pictures. In 2000, Pictures was seized by two South Australian plain-clothes detectives from an Adelaide bookshop in the belief that the book breached indecency and obscenity laws. Police sent the book to the Canberra-based Office of Film and Literature Classification after the state Attorney-General's Department deftly decided not to get involved in the mounting publicity storm. Eventually, the OFLC board agreed unanimously that the book, imported from the United States, should remain freely available and unclassified.
In 2006, a Mapplethorpe print of Andy Warhol
was auctioned for $643,200, making it the 11th most expensive photograph ever sold.
In May 2007, American writer, director, and producer James Crump
directed the documentary film Black White + Gray, which premiered at the 2007 Tribeca Film Festival
. It explores the influence Mapplethorpe, curator Sam Wagstaff
, and musician/poet Patti Smith
had on the 1970s art scene in New York City.
In September 2007, Prestel published Mapplethorpe:Polaroids, a collection of 183 of approximately 1,500 existing Mapplethorpe polaroids. This book accompanies an exhibition by the Whitney Museum of American Art
in May 2008.
Patti Smith's 2010 memoir Just Kids
focuses on her relationship with Mapplethorpe.
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
photographer, known for his large-scale, highly stylized black and white portraits, photos of flowers and nude men. The frank homoeroticism
Homoeroticism
Homoeroticism refers to the erotic attraction between members of the same sex, either male–male or female–female , most especially as it is depicted or manifested in the visual arts and literature. It can also be found in performative forms; from theatre to the theatricality of uniformed movements...
of some of the work of his middle period triggered a more general controversy about the public funding of artworks.
Biography
Mapplethorpe was born and grew up as a Roman Catholic of English and Irish heritage in Our Lady of the Snows Parish in Floral Park, QueensFloral Park, Queens
Floral Park is a neighborhood in the New York City borough of Queens. It is adjacent to the Village of Floral Park, which is in Nassau County. It may be distinguished from the latter by the use of the designation "North Floral Park". The neighborhood is part of Queens Community Board 13.Union...
, New York. His parents were Harry and Joan Mapplethorpe and he grew up with five brothers and sisters. He studied for a B.F.A. from the Pratt Institute
Pratt Institute
Pratt Institute is a private art college in New York City located in Brooklyn, New York, with satellite campuses in Manhattan and Utica. Pratt is one of the leading undergraduate art schools in the United States and offers programs in Architecture, Graphic Design, History of Art and Design,...
in Brooklyn
Brooklyn
Brooklyn is the most populous of New York City's five boroughs, with nearly 2.6 million residents, and the second-largest in area. Since 1896, Brooklyn has had the same boundaries as Kings County, which is now the most populous county in New York State and the second-most densely populated...
, where he majored in graphic arts, though he dropped out in 1969 before finishing his degree. Mapplethorpe lived with his partner Patti Smith
Patti Smith
Patricia Lee "Patti" Smith is an American singer-songwriter, poet and visual artist, who became a highly influential component of the New York City punk rock movement with her 1975 debut album Horses....
from 1967–1974, and she supported him by working in bookstores. They created art together, and even after he realized he was gay, they maintained a close relationship.
Mapplethorpe took his first photographs soon thereafter using a Polaroid camera. In the mid-1970s, he acquired a Hasselblad
Hasselblad
Victor Hasselblad AB is a Swedish manufacturer of medium-format cameras and photographic equipment based in Gothenburg, Sweden.The company is best known for the medium-format cameras it has produced since World War II....
medium-format camera and began taking photographs of a wide circle of friends and acquaintances, including artists, composers, and socialites. In the 1980s he refined his aesthetic, photographing statuesque male and female nudes, delicate flower still-lifes, and highly formal portraits of artists and celebrities. Mapplethorpe's first studio was at 24 Bond Street in Manhattan. In the 1980s, his mentor and lifetime companion art curator Sam Wagstaff
Sam Wagstaff
Samuel Jones Wagstaff Jr. was an American art curator and collector as well as the artistic mentor and benefactor of photographer Robert Mapplethorpe and poet-punk rocker Patti Smith...
gave him $500,000 to buy the top-floor loft at 35 West 23rd Street, where he lived and had his shooting space. He kept the Bond Street loft as his darkroom.
Mapplethorpe died on the morning of March 9, 1989, 42 years old, in a Boston, Massachusetts, hospital from complications arising from AIDS
AIDS
Acquired immune deficiency syndrome or acquired immunodeficiency syndrome is a disease of the human immune system caused by the human immunodeficiency virus...
. His body was cremated and the ashes buried in Queens
Queens
Queens is the easternmost of the five boroughs of New York City. The largest borough in area and the second-largest in population, it is coextensive with Queens County, an administrative division of New York state, in the United States....
, New York
New York City
New York is the most populous city in the United States and the center of the New York Metropolitan Area, one of the most populous metropolitan areas in the world. New York exerts a significant impact upon global commerce, finance, media, art, fashion, research, technology, education, and...
, in his mother's grave, marked "Maxey".
Nearly a year before his death, the ailing Mapplethorpe helped found the Robert Mapplethorpe Foundation, Inc. His vision for the Foundation was that it would be "the appropriate vehicle to protect his work, to advance his creative vision, and to promote the causes he cared about". Since his death, the Foundation has not only functioned as his official estate and helped promote his work throughout the world, it has also raised and donated millions of dollars to fund medical research in the fight against AIDS and HIV infection.
Art
Mapplethorpe worked primarily in the studio, particularly toward the end of his career. Common subjects include flowers, especially orchids and calla liliesZantedeschia aethiopica
Zantedeschia aethiopica ; syn. Calla aethiopica L., Richardia africana Kunth, Richardia aethiopica Spreng., Colocasia aethiopica Spreng...
, and celebrities, including Andy Warhol
Andy Warhol
Andrew Warhola , known as Andy Warhol, was an American painter, printmaker, and filmmaker who was a leading figure in the visual art movement known as pop art...
, Deborah Harry
Debbie Harry
Deborah Ann "Debbie" Harry is an American singer-songwriter and actress, best known for being the lead singer of the punk rock and new wave band Blondie. She has also had success as a solo artist, and in the mid-1990s she performed and recorded as part of The Jazz Passengers...
, Richard Gere
Richard Gere
Richard Tiffany Gere is an American actor. He began acting in the 1970s, playing a supporting role in Looking for Mr. Goodbar, and a starring role in Days of Heaven. He came to prominence in 1980 for his role in the film American Gigolo, which established him as a leading man and a sex symbol...
, Peter Gabriel
Peter Gabriel
Peter Brian Gabriel is an English singer, musician, and songwriter who rose to fame as the lead vocalist and flautist of the progressive rock group Genesis. After leaving Genesis, Gabriel went on to a successful solo career...
, Grace Jones
Grace Jones
Grace Jones is a Jamaican-American singer, model and actress.Jones secured a record deal with Island Records in 1977, which resulted in a string of dance-club hits. In the late 1970s, she adapted the emerging electronic music style and adopted a severe, androgynous look with square-cut hair and...
, and Patti Smith
Patti Smith
Patricia Lee "Patti" Smith is an American singer-songwriter, poet and visual artist, who became a highly influential component of the New York City punk rock movement with her 1975 debut album Horses....
. Smith was a longtime roommate of Mapplethorpe and a frequent subject in his photography, including a stark, iconic photograph that appears on the cover of Smith's first album, Horses
Horses (album)
"Horses" is often cited as one of the greatest albums in music history. In 2003, the album was ranked number 44 on Rolling Stone magazine's list of the 500 greatest albums of all time. NME named the album number 1 in its list "20 Near-as-Damn-It Perfect Initial Efforts"...
. Also, a Patti Smith portrait from 1986 recalls Albrecht Dürer
Albrecht Dürer
Albrecht Dürer was a German painter, printmaker, engraver, mathematician, and theorist from Nuremberg. His prints established his reputation across Europe when he was still in his twenties, and he has been conventionally regarded as the greatest artist of the Northern Renaissance ever since...
's 1500 self-portrait.
Other work includes homoerotic and BDSM
BDSM
BDSM is an erotic preference and a form of sexual expression involving the consensual use of restraint, intense sensory stimulation, and fantasy power role-play. The compound acronym BDSM is derived from the terms bondage and discipline , dominance and submission , and sadism and masochism...
acts (including coprophagia
Coprophagia
Coprophagia or coprophagy is the consumption of feces, from the Greek κόπρος copros and φαγεῖν phagein . Many animal species practice coprophagia as a matter of course; other species do not normally consume feces but may do so under unusual conditions...
), and classical nudes. Mapplethorpe's X Portfolio series sparked national attention in the early 1990s when it was included in The Perfect Moment, a traveling exhibition funded by National Endowment for the Arts
National Endowment for the Arts
The National Endowment for the Arts is an independent agency of the United States federal government that offers support and funding for projects exhibiting artistic excellence. It was created by an act of the U.S. Congress in 1965 as an independent agency of the federal government. Its current...
. The portfolio includes some of Mapplethorpe's most explicit imagery, including a self-portrait with a bullwhip
Bullwhip
A bullwhip is a single-tailed whip, usually made of braided leather, which was originally used as a tool for working with livestock.Bullwhips are pastoral tools, traditionally used to control livestock in open country...
inserted in his anus.
Though his work had been regularly displayed in publicly funded exhibitions, conservative and religious organizations, such as the American Family Association
American Family Association
The American Family Association is a 501 non-profit organization that promotes conservative Christian values, such as opposition to same-sex marriage, pornography, and abortion, as well as other public policy goals such as deregulation of the oil industry and lobbying against the Employee Free...
, seized on this exhibition to vocally oppose government support for what they called "nothing more than the sensational presentation of potentially obscene material." As a result, Mapplethorpe became something of a cause célèbre
Cause célèbre
A is an issue or incident arousing widespread controversy, outside campaigning and heated public debate. The term is particularly used in connection with celebrated legal cases. It is a French phrase in common English use...
for both sides of the American Culture war
Culture war
The culture war in American usage is a metaphor used to claim that political conflict is based on sets of conflicting cultural values. The term frequently implies a conflict between those values considered traditionalist or conservative and those considered progressive or liberal...
. The installation of The Perfect Moment in Cincinnati
Cincinnati, Ohio
Cincinnati is a city in the U.S. state of Ohio. Cincinnati is the county seat of Hamilton County. Settled in 1788, the city is located to north of the Ohio River at the Ohio-Kentucky border, near Indiana. The population within city limits is 296,943 according to the 2010 census, making it Ohio's...
resulted in the unsuccessful prosecution of the Contemporary Arts Center
Contemporary Arts Center
The Contemporary Arts Center is a pioneering contemporary art museum located in Cincinnati, Ohio. The CAC is a non-collecting museum that focuses on new developments in painting, sculpture, photography, architecture, performance art and new media...
of Cincinnati and its director, Dennis Barrie, on charges of "pandering obscenity".
His sexually charged photographs of black men have been criticized as exploitative. Such criticism was the subject of a work by American conceptual artist Glenn Ligon
Glenn Ligon
Glenn Ligon is an American conceptual artist whose work explores race, language, desire, sexuality, and identity. He engages in intertextuality with other works from the visual arts, literature, and history, as well as his own life.-Early life and career:...
, Notes on the Margins of the Black Book (1991–1993). Ligon juxtaposes Mapplethorpe's 91 images of black men in the 1988 publication Black Book with critical texts to complicate the racial undertones of the imagery.
The Perfect Moment (1989 solo exhibit tour)
In the summer of 1989, Mapplethorpe's traveling solo exhibit brought national attention to the issues of public funding for the arts, who defines what is obscene, and what censorship should be acceptable. The Corcoran Gallery of ArtCorcoran Gallery of Art
The Corcoran Gallery of Art is the largest privately supported cultural institution in Washington, DC. The museum's main focus is American art. The permanent collection includes works by Rembrandt, Eugène Delacroix, Edgar Degas, Thomas Gainsborough, John Singer Sargent, Claude Monet, Pablo...
in Washington, D.C., had agreed to be one of the host museums for the tour. Mapplethorpe decided to show his latest series that he explored shortly before his death. Titled Robert Mapplethorpe: The Perfect Moment, it was curated by Janet Kardon of the Institute of Contemporary Art
Institute of Contemporary Art
The Institute of Contemporary Art is an art museum and exhibition space located in Boston, in the U.S. state of Massachusetts. The museum was founded in 1936 with a mission to exhibit contemporary art.-Mission:...
(ICA). The hierarchy of the Corcoran and several members of the U.S. Congress
United States Congress
The United States Congress is the bicameral legislature of the federal government of the United States, consisting of the Senate and the House of Representatives. The Congress meets in the United States Capitol in Washington, D.C....
were upset when the works were revealed to them, due to some of the content being homoerotic and sadomasochistically themed. The museum refused the exhibit's stop during the national tour.
In June 1989, pop art
Pop art
Pop art is an art movement that emerged in the mid 1950s in Britain and in the late 1950s in the United States. Pop art challenged tradition by asserting that an artist's use of the mass-produced visual commodities of popular culture is contiguous with the perspective of fine art...
ist Lowell Blair Nesbitt
Lowell Blair Nesbitt
Lowell Blair Nesbitt was a painter, draughtsman, printmaker and sculptor.-Early years:Lowell Nesbitt was a graduate of the Tyler School of Art at Temple University in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania and also attended the Royal Academy of Arts in London, England where he created a number of works in the...
became involved in the censorship issue. Nesbitt, a long-time friend of Mapplethorpe, revealed that he had a $1.5-million bequest to the museum in his will, but publicly promised that if the museum refused to host the exhibition, he would revoke the bequest. The Corcoran refused and Nesbitt bequeathed the money to the Phillips Collection
Phillips Collection
The Phillips Collection is an art museum founded by Duncan Phillips in 1921 as the Phillips Memorial Gallery located in the Dupont Circle neighborhood of Washington, D.C. Phillips was the grandson of James H...
instead. After the Corcoran refused the Mapplethorpe exhibition, the underwriters of the exhibition went to the nonprofit Washington Project for the Arts
Washington Project for the Arts
Washington Project for the Arts, founded in 1975, is a non-profit organization dedicated to the support and aid of artists in the Washington, D.C. area.-History:...
, which showed all the images in its space from July 21 to August 13, 1989, to large crowds.
In 1990, the Contemporary Arts Center
Contemporary Arts Center
The Contemporary Arts Center is a pioneering contemporary art museum located in Cincinnati, Ohio. The CAC is a non-collecting museum that focuses on new developments in painting, sculpture, photography, architecture, performance art and new media...
, and Dennis Barrie, were charged with obscenity. They were found not guilty by a jury.
According to the ICA, "The Corcoran's decision sparked a controversial national debate: Should tax dollars support the arts? Who decides what is "obscene" or "offensive" in public exhibitions? And if art can be considered a form of free speech, is it a violation of the First Amendment
First Amendment to the United States Constitution
The First Amendment to the United States Constitution is part of the Bill of Rights. The amendment prohibits the making of any law respecting an establishment of religion, impeding the free exercise of religion, abridging the freedom of speech, infringing on the freedom of the press, interfering...
to revoke federal funding on grounds of obscenity?
To this day, these questions remain very much at issue."
UCE controversy
In 1998, the University of Central EnglandBirmingham City University
Birmingham City University is a British university in the city of Birmingham, England. It is the second largest of three universities in the city, the other two being the Aston University and University of Birmingham...
was involved in a controversy when a book by Mapplethorpe was confiscated. A final-year undergraduate student was writing a paper on the work of Robert Mapplethorpe and intended to illustrate the paper with a few photographs from Mapplethorpe, a book of the photographer's work. She took the photographs to the local chemist to be developed and the chemist informed West Midlands Police because of the unusual nature of the images. The police confiscated the library book from the student and informed the university that the book would have to be destroyed. If the university agreed to the destruction, no further action would be taken.
The university Vice-Chancellor, Dr. Peter Knight, supported by the Senate, took the view that the book was a legitimate book for the university library to hold and that the action of the police was a serious infringement of academic freedom. The Vice-Chancellor was interviewed by the police, under caution, with a view to prosecution under the terms of the Obscene Publications Acts.
After the interview with the Vice-Chancellor, a file was sent to the Crown Prosecution Service as the Director of Public Prosecutions has to take the decision as to whether or not to proceed with a trial. After a delay of about six months, the affair came to an end when Dr. Knight was informed by the DPP that no action would be taken.
Posthumously
In 1996, Patti Smith wrote a book The Coral SeaThe Coral Sea (book)
The Coral Sea is a book by Patti Smith, published in 1996.- Voyage :# "The Passenger M"# "The Throw"# "Light Play"# "Rank and File"# "Music "# "Staff of Life"# "After Thoughts"# "An Auctioned Heart"# "A Bed of Roses"# "Monkeyshines"...
dedicated to Mapplethorpe.
In September 1999, Arena Editions published Pictures, a monograph that reintroduced Mapplethorpe's sex pictures. In 2000, Pictures was seized by two South Australian plain-clothes detectives from an Adelaide bookshop in the belief that the book breached indecency and obscenity laws. Police sent the book to the Canberra-based Office of Film and Literature Classification after the state Attorney-General's Department deftly decided not to get involved in the mounting publicity storm. Eventually, the OFLC board agreed unanimously that the book, imported from the United States, should remain freely available and unclassified.
In 2006, a Mapplethorpe print of Andy Warhol
Andy Warhol
Andrew Warhola , known as Andy Warhol, was an American painter, printmaker, and filmmaker who was a leading figure in the visual art movement known as pop art...
was auctioned for $643,200, making it the 11th most expensive photograph ever sold.
In May 2007, American writer, director, and producer James Crump
James Crump
James Crump is a curator and writer. He is the author or co-author of numerous books and has published widely in the fields of contemporary art and history of photography.Crump is known internationally for his work with contemporary artists and photographers...
directed the documentary film Black White + Gray, which premiered at the 2007 Tribeca Film Festival
Tribeca Film Festival
The Tribeca Film Festival is a film festival founded in 2002 by Jane Rosenthal, Robert De Niro and Craig Hatkoff in a response to the September 11, 2001 attacks on the World Trade Center and the consequent loss of vitality in the TriBeCa neighborhood in Lower Manhattan.The mission of the festival...
. It explores the influence Mapplethorpe, curator Sam Wagstaff
Sam Wagstaff
Samuel Jones Wagstaff Jr. was an American art curator and collector as well as the artistic mentor and benefactor of photographer Robert Mapplethorpe and poet-punk rocker Patti Smith...
, and musician/poet Patti Smith
Patti Smith
Patricia Lee "Patti" Smith is an American singer-songwriter, poet and visual artist, who became a highly influential component of the New York City punk rock movement with her 1975 debut album Horses....
had on the 1970s art scene in New York City.
In September 2007, Prestel published Mapplethorpe:Polaroids, a collection of 183 of approximately 1,500 existing Mapplethorpe polaroids. This book accompanies an exhibition by the Whitney Museum of American Art
Whitney Museum of American Art
The Whitney Museum of American Art, often referred to simply as "the Whitney", is an art museum with a focus on 20th- and 21st-century American art. Located at 945 Madison Avenue at 75th Street in New York City, the Whitney's permanent collection contains more than 18,000 works in a wide variety of...
in May 2008.
Patti Smith's 2010 memoir Just Kids
Just Kids
Just Kids is a memoir by Patti Smith, published on January 19, 2010. In the book, Smith documents her relationship with artist Robert Mapplethorpe.-Critical reception:Just Kids won the National Book Award for nonfiction in 2010...
focuses on her relationship with Mapplethorpe.
Selected works
- Mapplethorpe, Robert. Robert Mapplethorpe: 1970-1983. London: Institute of Contemporary Arts, 1983. ISBN 0905263316
- Mapplethorpe, Robert, and Bruce Chatwin. Lady, Lisa LyonLisa LyonLisa Lyon is a female bodybuilder from the United States. Her stats as taken on October 1980: She stands at 5'3" and weighs only 105 pounds, but she can dead-lift 225 pounds, bench-press 120 pounds, and squat 265 pounds; two and a half times her own weight....
. New York: Viking Press, 1983. ISBN 0670430129 - Mapplethorpe, Robert. Certain people: a book of portraits. Pasadena, CA: Twelvetrees Press, 1985. ISBN 0942642147
- Mapplethorpe, Robert, and Ntozake Shange. Black book. New York: St. Martin's Press, 1986. ISBN 0312083025
- Marshall, Richard, and Robert Mapplethorpe. 50 New York artists: a critical selection of painters and sculptors working in New York. San Francisco: Chronicle Books, 1986. ISBN 0877014035
- Mapplethorpe, Robert. Robert Mapplethorpe. Tokyo: Parco, 1987. ISBN 4891941499
- Mapplethorpe, Robert. Mapplethorpe portraits. London: National Portrait Gallery, 1988. ISBN 0904017915
- Mapplethorpe, Robert, and Joan DidionJoan DidionJoan Didion is an American author best known for her novels and her literary journalism. Her novels and essays explore the disintegration of American morals and cultural chaos, where the overriding theme is individual and social fragmentation...
. Some women. Boston: Bulfinch Press, 1989. ISBN 082121716X - Kardon, Janet, Robert Mapplethorpe, David Joselit, and Kay Larson. Robert Mapplethorpe: the perfect moment. 2nd ed. Philadelphia: Institute of Contemporary Art, University of Pennsylvania, 1989. ISBN 0884540464
- Mapplethorpe, Robert. Flowers. Boston: Bulfinch Press, 1990. ISBN 082121781X
- Mapplethorpe, Robert, and Arthur Coleman DantoArthur DantoArthur Coleman Danto Arthur Coleman Danto Arthur Coleman Danto (born January 1, 1924 is an American art critic, and professor of philosophy. He is best known as the influential, long-time art critic for The Nation and for his work in philosophical aesthetics and philosophy of history, though he...
. Mapplethorpe. New York: Random House, 1992. ISBN 0679408045 - Mapplethorpe, Robert, and Edmund White. Altars. New York: Random House, 1995. ISBN 067942721X
- Mapplethorpe, Robert, John Ashbery, Mark Holborn, and Dimitri Levas. Pistils. New York: Random House, 1996. ISBN 0679408053
- Rimbaud, ArthurArthur RimbaudJean Nicolas Arthur Rimbaud was a French poet. Born in Charleville, Ardennes, he produced his best known works while still in his late teens—Victor Hugo described him at the time as "an infant Shakespeare"—and he gave up creative writing altogether before the age of 21. As part of the decadent...
, Paul Schmidt, and Robert Mapplethorpe. A season in hell. Boston: Little, Brown, 1997. ISBN 0821224581 - Mapplethorpe, Robert, and Dimitri Levas. Pictures. Arena Editions, 1999. ISBN 1892041162
- Mapplethorpe, Robert, and Richard Marshall. Autoportrait. Santa Fe, NM: Arena Editions in association with Cheim and Reid, 2001. ISBN 1892041413
- Mapplethorpe, Robert, Germano Celant, Arkadii Ippolitov, Karole P B Vail, and Jennifer Blessing. Robert Mapplethorpe and the classical tradition: photographs and Mannerist prints. Berlin: Deutsche Guggenheim, 2004. ISBN 0892073136
- Wolf, Sylvia, and Robert Mapplethorpe. Polaroids: Mapplethorpe. Munich and New York: Prestel, 2007. ISBN 9783791338354
Further reading
- Marshall, Richard, Richard Howard, and Ingrid Sischy. Robert Mapplethorpe. New York: Whitney Museum of American Art in association with New York Graphic Society Books, 1988. ISBN 087427060X
- Veith, Gene Edward. State of the arts: from Bezalel to Mapplethorpe. Wheaton, IL: Crossway Books, 1991. ISBN 0891076085
- Ellenzweig, Allen. The homoerotic photograph: male images from Durieu/Delacroix to Mapplethorpe. New York: Columbia University Press, 1992. ISBN 0231075367
- Fritscher, Jack. Mapplethorpe: assault with a deadly camera: a pop culture memoir, an outlaw reminiscence. Mamaroneck, NY: Hastings House, 1994. ISBN 0803893620
- Jarzombek, MarkMark JarzombekMark Jarzombek is a US-born architectural historian, author and critic. Since 1995 he has served as Director of the History Theory Criticism Section of the Department of Architecture at MIT, Cambridge MA, United States....
. "The Mapplethorpe trial and the paradox of its formalist and liberal defense: sights of contention." AppendX 2:58–81, Spring 1994. - Morrisroe, Patricia. Robert Mapplethorpe: a biography. New York: Random House, 1995. ISBN 0394576500
- Danto, Arthur C. Playing with the edge: the photographic achievement of Robert Mapplethorpe. Berkeley: University of California Press, 1996. ISBN 0520200519
- Banham, Gary. "Mapplethorpe, Duchamp and the ends of photography". Angelaki 7(1):119-128, 2002.
- Smith, PattiPatti SmithPatricia Lee "Patti" Smith is an American singer-songwriter, poet and visual artist, who became a highly influential component of the New York City punk rock movement with her 1975 debut album Horses....
. Just KidsJust KidsJust Kids is a memoir by Patti Smith, published on January 19, 2010. In the book, Smith documents her relationship with artist Robert Mapplethorpe.-Critical reception:Just Kids won the National Book Award for nonfiction in 2010...
. New York: Ecco, 2010. ISBN 9780066211312
External links
- The Robert Mapplethorpe Foundation website
- Robert Mapplethorpe at Xavier HufkensXavier HufkensXavier Hufkens is a European gallery owner and dealer in contemporary art. Since its founding in 1987, his gallery has been committed to the long term representation of established, mid-career and emerging artists. The gallery deals in a combination of painting, drawing, sculpture, photography,...
, Brussels - Exhibitions with Robert Mapplethorpe
- Biography from the Guggenheim Museum
- Robert Mapplethorpe at Findagrave.com
- Robert Mapplethorpe: A Season in Hell / Opening and Performance by Patti Smith Video at VernissageTV, Alison Jacques Gallery, London / UK. October 13, 2009.