Robert Mapplethorpe’s photographic work is traditional yet subversive. This exhibition includes work from the three genres for which he is best known: nudes, portraits, and still-life. Though it is perhaps his sex photographs that first gained Mapplethorpe notoriety as something of an enfante terrible, he approaches all of his subject matter with a consistent and sensually attuned eye.
Mapplethorpe has been an innovator in the use of several different photographic processes throughout his career. The exhibition will include gelatin-silver prints, photogravure, and platinum prints on paper and linen. Four early related collages will be exhibited, homages to Marlene Dietich, James Dean, Jean Harlow, as well as a self-portrait, all dating from 1971.
Robert Mapplethorpe’s photographs are internationally recognized and widely published. His most recent books include ROBERT MAPPLETHORPE: A PERFECT MOMENT, published by the Institute of Contemporary Photography, Philadelphia, in conjunction with a traveling retrospective, and the monograph ROBERT MAPPLETHORPE published this past spring by the Whitney Museum of Art.
