Robert Mapplethorpe

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(b New York, 4 Nov 1946; d Boston, 9 March 1989). American photographer, sculptor and collagist. In the early 1970s, after studying at the Pratt Institute of Art in Brooklyn (1963-70), he produced a number of assemblages and collages from magazine photographs often altered by spray painting. In one such work, Julius of California (1971; Charles Cowles priv. col., see Marshall, p. 21), he drew a circle around the male figure's genitals as a subversion of the usual practice of censorship. He soon began to take his own black-and-white photographs with a Polaroid camera, incorporating them into collages (e.g. Self-portrait, 1971; Charles Cowles priv. col., see Marshall, p. 17) or arranging them in sequences, as in Patti Smith (Don't Touch here) (1973; artist's col., see Marshall, p. 27), a portrait of the poet and singer who was one of his favourite models. Within a year of showing his Polaroids in his first one-man show (New York, Light Gal., 1973) he began to use a large format press camera, followed soon afterwards by a Hasselblad. As his interest in photography increased, so he looked more closely for guidance to such earlier photographers as Nadar, Julia Margaret Cameron and F. Holland Day. His photographs of the later 1970s include a number of homo-erotic, sado-masochistic images, such as Helmut (1978; see Marshall, p. 70). Here, as in other works, the presentation of a carefully posed figure against a plain paper or cloth backdrop creates a strong formal structure in counterpoint to the shock value and intensity of the subject-matter. This formal emphasis is even more apparent in the flower and still-life works, such as Pan Head and Flower (1976; Holly Solomon priv. col., see Marshall, p. 46).

See the Abbreviations for further details.

Robert Mapplethorpe (1946-1989) was a controversial American photographer whose work centered on still lifes (mainly flower images), portraiture, and figurative work which was sexually explicit and sensual. A retrospective of his work in 1989 led to a reexamination of government support of the arts.

Robert Mapplethorpe was born in Floral Park, New York, in 1946. Although he found his middle-class upbringing and neighborhood somewhat confining, he responded with fascination to the Catholic ritual and mystery which were a part of his early years. This aspect of the Church influenced his entire life. It informed the haunted, mysterious quality of much of his art even though in later years he did not consider himself a religious person.

During the 1960s Mapplethorpe attended Pratt Institute in Brooklyn where he studied painting, drawing, and sculpture. His earliest recognition came from mixed media collages, done in the late 1960s and early 1970s, which incorporated magazine pictures of nudes.

Mapplethorpe soon began his own experiments with photography, first using a Polaroid. By the mid 1970s he considered himself a photographer. He had his first one-person show in 1976 at New York's Light Gallery, an exhibit which included Polaroid photos of flowers, portraits, and erotic images.

Mapplethorpe's notoriety came from a series of sexually explicit photographs of Manhattan's gay community which he made during the 1970s. The implied violence and sadomasochism of some of these images have caused some critics to label them pornography. Others feel that because Mapplethorpe was a part of the community which he recorded, he helped New York gays to define themselves in a positive way. The reaction to these photographs is very much the viewer's own, as Mapplethorpe included no moralizing commentary in his pictures.

From his earliest work in Polaroid, he went on to produce silver and platinum prints on both paper and canvas. He also worked with color photography and continued to produce photocollages and work in three dimensions, allowing his art to cross the line from photography into the realms of painting and sculpture.

There are three major themes in Robert Mapplethorpe's photographic work: still life, portraiture, and the figure. These themes remained constant from his earliest experiments in the medium to the end of his career.

Mapplethorpe's still lifes are mainly flower images - lilies, orchids, tulips, irises, birds of paradise - photographed in both color and black and white. The images are pristine and perfect, with a single blossom or a grouping of flowers isolated against a dark background. Both the structure and the texture of these subjects appealed to Mapplethorpe's sensibilities, and the sensuality of the images is arresting. Mapplethorpe spoke of a "black edge" to his flowers, rather than of their softness.

In the realm of portraiture, Mapplethorpe photographed many prominent contemporary figures, mainly artists and celebrities, including artist Andy Warhol, artist/musician Laurie Anderson, singer Patti Smith, artist Louise Bourgeois, actress Kathleen Turner, actor Donald Sutherland, and fellow photographer Lord Snowdon. These cool, detached images reveal Mapplethorpe's careful way of working. Some have criticized them for being "slick," while others feel they are among the finest portrait photographs ever made. Mapplethorpe also created a series of self-portraits. Often sexually ambiguous or androgynous, these images chronicle the artist's maturation process.

Most controversial, of course, is Mapplethorpe's figurative work, which is also the most sexually explicit and sensual. Once again, an interest in gender ambiguity and androgyny is evident. In addition to the period of interest in specifically homoerotic subject matter, Mapplethorpe also pushed the limits of gender definition and identity in a photo essay made between 1980 and 1982 of the female body builder Lisa Lyon, in which he explored various "types" of representation of woman - goddess, temptress, bride, etc. Also noteworthy in his figurative work are his studies of African American males.

Mapplethorpe's work became increasingly respectable in the 1980s as it became less sexual and more classical. Always a formalist, his emphasis throughout his career was on clear, geometric composition and skillful manipulation of studio lighting in order to bring out the subtle nuances of surface textures. Working in a controlled studio setting, he managed to freeze a moment in time.

Mapplethorpe drew inspiration from late 19th-and early 20th-century photography. He particularly liked the work of Julia Margaret Cameron, Nadar, Edward Weston, Man Ray, Cecil Beaton, and F. Holland Day.

Although his work deals with sex, violence, and race, three extremely sensitive and often confrontational themes, its pristine quality enables his photography to bridge the gap between provocative subject matter and artistic respectability. Today his photographs are in the permanent collections of most major art museums.

Robert Mapplethorpe died of AIDS on March 9, 1989. Soon after, his name came to be linked with controversies surrounding government support of the arts. In the summer of 1989 some members of Congress vocally opposed the use of National Endowment for the Arts funding in support of Robert Mapplethorpe: The Perfect Moment a retrospective exhibition which included some of Mapplethorpe's sexually explicit images. This spurred an ongoing debate not only about the use of government funds to support the arts, but also about censorship in general. The issue in question is whether the government should place restrictions on its arts funding based on the content of the work. In Washington, DC The Perfect Moment was canceled by the Corcoran Gallery of Art in 1989. The following year the Contemporary Arts Center in Cincinnati mounted an exhibit of Mapplethorpe's photographs that was challenged by local police. As controversial after death as he was during his lifetime, Mapplethorpe has become something of a symbol for artistic freedom in the late 20th century.

Further Reading

Janet Kardon's exhibition catalog, Robert Mapplethorpe: The Perfect Moment (1989), is a recent and well-documented source of information on Mapplethorpe's photography. It includes an exhaustive bibliography and an exhibition history as well as essays by Kardon, Kay Larson, and David Joselit and a dedication by Patti Smith. An earlier catalog, Robert Mapplethorpe, by Richard Marshall, was created for the photographer's first major retrospective at the Whitney Museum (1988). Among Mapplethorpe's own books are a monograph, Robert Mapplethorpe (1987), Some Women (1989), and Black Book (1986), as well as several collaborative efforts, the most noteworthy being Certain People: A Book of Portraits done with Susan Sontag (1985).

Mapplethorpe, Robert (1946-89), American photographer, born and mainly active in New York. He studied painting and sculpture, and in the late 1960s was involved with underground film-making before taking up photography, self-taught, in the 1970s. A key stimulus was access to the photography collection of the Metropolitan Museum of Art via a friend, John McKendry, its curator of prints and photographs. Though he became more widely known after the appearance of his first book, Lady: Lisa Lyon, a study of a female bodybuilder, Mapplethorpe already had a reputation for his artist-portraits (David Hockney, Patti Smith), flower studies, and nudes. Irrespective of subject matter, his images are characterized by flawless craftsmanship and classical poise; especially the black or white male nude is presented as a kind of mortal sculpture.

In the 1980s atmosphere of political and cultural conservatism, fuelled by moral panic about AIDS, Mapplethorpe's aggressive flouting of taboos on male nudity, and some highly explicit homoerotic images, made him a controversial figure, together with other ‘transgressive’ artists such as Andres Serrano; his AIDS-related early death increased this notoriety. A wide-ranging retrospective exhibition, Robert Mapplethorpe: The Perfect Moment (1989), partly funded by the National Endowment of the Arts (NEA), provoked an immense furore and inflamed the ‘culture wars’ between liberals and the right over issues such as pornography, freedom of expression, and NEA policy. Mapplethorpe's artistic reputation has survived, however; another major retrospective was held in Brussels in 1993, and in the decade after his death the prices of key works topped $20, 000.

— Robin Lenman

Bibliography

• Danto, A. C., Mapplethorpe (1992).
• Morrisroe, P., Mapplethorpe: A Biography (1993)

Robert Mapplethorpe
Born	November 4, 1946(1946-11-04) Floral Park, New York
Died	March 9, 1989 (aged 42) Boston, Massachusetts
Nationality	American
Field	Photography
Training	Pratt Institute

Robert Mapplethorpe (November 4, 1946 – March 9, 1989) was an American photographer, known for his large-scale, highly stylized black and white portraits, photos of flowers and naked men. The frank, homosexual eroticism of some of the work of his middle period triggered a more general controversy about the public funding of artworks.

Contents 1 Biography 2 Art 3 Corcoran Scandal 4 UCE Controversy 5 Posthumously 6 See also 7 Bibliography 8 References 9 External links

Biography

The cover of Patti Smith's first album, Horses, featured a photo taken by Robert Mapplethorpe.

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, Queens, New York. He studied for a B.F.A. from the Pratt Institute in Brooklyn, where he majored in graphic arts,^[1] though he dropped out in 1969 before finishing his degree.^[2]

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 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, in a Boston, Massachusetts hospital from complications arising from AIDS; he was 42 years old. His ashes were 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".^[3] 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.^[3]

Art

Mapplethorpe worked primarily in the studio, particularly towards the end of his career. Common subjects include flowers, especially orchids and calla lilies; celebrities, including Andy Warhol, Deborah Harry, Richard Gere, Peter Gabriel, Grace Jones, and Patti Smith (a Patti Smith portrait^[4] from 1986 recalls Albrecht Dürer's 1500 self-portrait^[5]); 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.^[6][7][8] 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."^[9] As a result, Mapplethorpe became something of a cause celebre 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.^[10][11] 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 several of Mapplethorpe's most iconic images of black men appropriated from the 1988 publication, Black Book, with various critical texts to complicate the racial undertones of the imagery.

Corcoran Scandal

In June 1989, pop artist Lowell Blair Nesbitt became involved with a scandal involving Mapplethorpe's work. The Corcoran Gallery of Art in Washington D.C. had agreed to host a traveling solo exhibit of Mapplethorpe's works, without making a stipulation as to what type of subject matter would be used. Mapplethorpe decided to show a new series that he had explored shortly before his death, Robert Mapplethorpe: The Perfect Moment curated by Janet Kardon of the Institute of Contemporary Art.^[12] The hierarchy of the Corcoran and several members of Congress were horrified when the works were revealed to them, and the museum refused to go forth with the exhibit. It was at this time that Nesbitt, a long-time friend of Mapplethorpe, revealed that he had a $1.5 million bequest to the museum in his will. Nesbitt publicly promised that if the museum refused to host the exhibition he would revoke his 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,^[13] which showed the controversial images in its own space from July 21 - August 13, 1989, to large crowds.^[14]

UCE Controversy

In 1998, the University of Central England 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. 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 book in question was Mapplethorpe, published by Jonathan Cape 1992. 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 Act. This Act defines obscenity as material that is likely to deprave and corrupt. It was used unsuccessfully in the famous Lady Chatterley's Lover trial. Curiously the police were not particularly interested in some of the more notorious images which could have been covered by other legislation. They focused on one particular image, 'Jim and Tom, Sausalito 1977,' which depicts one man urinating into the mouth of another.

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 as 'there was insufficient evidence to support a successful prosecution on this occasion'. The original book was returned, in a slightly tattered state, and restored to the university library.^[15]

Posthumously

Lists of miscellaneous information should be avoided. Please relocate any relevant information into appropriate sections or articles. (November 2008)

In 1996, Patti Smith wrote a book The Coral Sea 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 US, should remain freely available and unclassified.

In May, 2001, Arena Editions published Autoportrait, a collection of black and white Polaroid self-portraits that Mapplethorpe took between 1971 and 1973. This was the first time these early works became available for widespread viewing since the 1970s.

In 2006, a Mapplethorpe print of Andy Warhol was auctioned for $643,200, making it the 9th 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.

See also

• List of photographers known for portraying males erotically
• List of most expensive photographs

Bibliography

• Patricia Morrisroe (1995) Robert Mapplethorpe: A Biography (Papermac: London and New York)

• Arthur C. Danto (1996) Playing with the Edge: the Photographic Achievement of Robert Mapplethorpe (University of California Press: London and Los Angeles)

• Gary Banham (2002) "Mapplethorpe, Duchamp and the Ends of Photography" Angelaki 7.1

• Mark Jarzombek. "The Mapplethorpe Trial and the Paradox of its Formalist and Liberal Defense: Sights of Contention," AppendX, No. 2 (Spring 1994), 58-81

• Allen Ellenzweig (1992), "The Homoerotic Photograph: Male Images from Durieu/Delacroix to Mapplethorpe" (New York: Columbia University Press), ISBN 0231075367

References

1. ^ Glueck, Grace. "Fallen Angel", The New York Times, June 25, 1995. Accessed October 14, 2007. "Growing up in a blue-collar precinct of Floral Park and steeped in Catholicism, Mapplethorpe developed -- to his alarm -- an adolescent interest in gay pornographic magazines.... So at Pratt Institute in Brooklyn, where his father had studied engineering and Robert majored in graphic arts (but stopped short of getting a degree)..."
2. ^ Haggerty, George. "Gay histories and cultures"
3. ^ ^{a b} http://www.mapplethorpe.org/foundation.html Robert Mapplethorpe Foundation website
4. ^ http://www.georgetown.edu/faculty/irvinem/visualarts/Image-Library/Mapplethorpe/tate_photo-patti-smith-1975.jpg
5. ^ http://www.georgetown.edu/faculty/irvinem/visualarts/Image-Library/Exempla/durer-self-portrait-1500-lg.jpg
6. ^ Self-Portrait (From The X Portfolio)
7. ^ Untitled (Self Portrait)
8. ^ Robert Mapplethorpe's extraordinary vision
9. ^ Mapplethorpe's Photos Now an F.C.C. Issue - New York Times
10. ^ Imaging Sadomasochism: Robert Mapplethorpe and the Masquerade of Photography
11. ^ Mapplethorpe, Robert (1946-1989)
12. ^ Imperfect Moments: Mapplethorpe and Censorship Twenty Years Later, Institute of Contemporary Art
13. ^ The Sensitive Society, James F. Fitzpatrick, FCLJ Vol 47 No 2
14. ^ Corcoran Cut From Painter's Will;Lowell Nesbitt's Mapplethorpe Protest
15. ^ UCE pages on the Mapplethorpe controversy

External links

• The Robert Mapplethorpe Foundation website
• Robert Mapplethorpe at Xavier Hufkens, Brussels
• Exhibitions with Robert Mapplethorpe
• Biography from the Guggenheim Museum
• Robert Mapplethorpe at the Internet Movie Database
• 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.

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