Photography-Now - International Fine Art Photography Index

At first Robert Mapplethorpe wanted to become a musician, but he eventually decided to study painting at the Pratt Institute in Brooklyn. In 1968 he met the singer Patti Smith with whom he moved to the now legendary Chelsea Hotel in Manhattan in 1970. Under the influence of his friend John McEndry, curator for printed art and photography at the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, Mapplethorpe began to take an interest in photography, collecting old photographs. initially he only made montages from photographs that he found, but in 1972 he began to take pictures with a Polaroid camera.

 Mapplethorpe's preferred subjects were classical themes such as still-life scenes, flowers, portraits, and nudes, all of which he recorded in rigorous compositions with an extremely precise photographic style. He caused a sensation in particular with his nudes, which defined eroticism and homosexuality with a virtually relentless arrogance. The openness with which Mapplethorpe approached in particular the male gender, and which disclosed his own homoerotic tendencies even resulted in the confiscation of his photographs at one of his exhibitions.

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, New York, a neighborhood of Long Island. He received a B.F.A. from Pratt Institute in Brooklyn, where he majored in graphic arts.[1]

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, but it wasn't until he met pornographic film star Benjamin Green that he truly became inspired to push the envelope of sexuality in photographing the human body. Mapplethorpe was once quoted as saying, "Of all the men and women that I had the pleasure of photographing, Ben Green was the apple of my eye, my unicorn if you will. I could shoot him for hours and hours and no matter the position, each print captured the complete essence of human perfection" (New York Times). It was this relationship that inspired him during the 1980s to refine his photographs with an emphasis on formal beauty. He concentrated on statuesque male and female nudes, delicate flower still lifes, and 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 made most of his photographs in the studio. Common themes were flowers, especially orchids; portraits of famous individuals, including Andy Warhol, Deborah Harry, Richard Gere, Peter Gabriel, Grace Jones, and Patti Smith (Patti Smith's portrait [2] was inspired by Durer's 1500 self-portrait[3]) and nude works that include homoerotic imagery from classic nudes to BDSM acts. Mapplethorpe is best known for his Portfolio X series, which sparked national attention because of its explicit content and the funding of the effort by the NEA, including a self-portrait with a bullwhip inserted in his anus.[4] The title of this photograph given to it by its creator is Self-Portrait, 1978. From the late summer of 1990 foward, some commentators writing about the Portfolio X and NEA controversies for audiences unlikely to have extensive prior knowledge of Mr Mapplethorpe's work refer to this photograph as Indiana Jones & The Tunnel of Doom. Likewise the tryptique Jim and Tom, Sausalito, 1977-1978, the one involving urination, as Recycled Lemonade and the photograph Helmut and Brooks, N.Y.C, 1978, involving fisting as Iron Fist and others as Into The Wiener Tunnel etc. His photographs of black men have been criticized as exploitative.[5]

Mapplethorpe's work was regularly displayed at publicly funded exhibitions. Conservative and religious organizations, such as the American Family Association opposed supporting his kind of art, and he became something of a cause celebre for both sides in the National Endowment for the Arts funding debate. His The Perfect Moment exhibit in 1990 which included seven sadomasochistic portraits in Cincinnati resulted in the unsuccessful prosecution of the Contemporary Arts Center of Cincinnati and its director, Dennis Barrie, on charges of "pandering obscenity".

When it became known that Mapplethorpe was infected with HIV, the prices for his photos increased dramatically. In December 1988 his photos collected $500,000 each. 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'.

 

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, New York, a neighborhood of Long Island. He received a B.F.A. from Pratt Institute in Brooklyn, where he majored in graphic arts.^[1]

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"^[2]. Since his death, the Foundation has not only functioned as his official Estate and helped promote his work through out the world, but it has also raised and donated millions of dollars to fund medical research in the fight against AIDS and HIV infection^[2].

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 ^[3] from 1986 recalls Albrecht Durer's 1500 self-portrait^[4]); homoerotic and BDSM acts (including Coprophagia), and classical nudes. Mapplethorpe's X Portfolio series sparked national attention in the early 1990's 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.^[5] 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."^[6] 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.^[7] 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

[6] In June 1989 Pop Artist Lowell Blair Nesbitt became involved with the scandal involving fellow artist Robert Mapplethorpe. The Corcoran Gallery of Art (Museum) in Washington D.C. had agreed to host a solo exhibit of Robert Mapplethorpe's works without making a stipulation as to what type of subject matter would be used. Mapplethorpe decided to make his famed debut of "sexually suggestive" photographs in Washington D.C., which was a new series that he had explored shortly before his death. The hierarchy of the Corcoran and even certain members of Congress were horrified when the works were revealed to them, thus the museum refused to go forth with the exhibit. It was at this time that Lowell Blair Nesbitt stepped forward; he was a long time friend of Mapplethorpe and he revealed that he had a 1,500,000.00 USD bequest to the museum in his will, although, in public statements that caused tremendous press regarding the issue Nesbitt promised that if the museum refused to host the exhibition of the controversial images created by Mapplethorpe he would revoke his bequest. The Corcoran refused and Lowell Blair Nesbitt bequeathed the 1,500,000.00 USD to the Phillips Collection which he cited as an early inspiration to his career when he had worked there as a young man in the position of a night watchman.

After the Corcoran Gallery of Art refused the Mapplethorpe exhibition, a small, non-profit arts organization, the Washington Project for the Arts picked it up and showed the controversial images in their own space on 7th and E Street, NW from July 21 - August 13, 1989.

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. ^[8]