Fotografo Robert Mapplethorpe

The Robert Mapplethorpe Foundation, Inc.
© Robert Mapplethorpe Foundation. All Rights Reserved.

Terms of Service
http://www.mapplethorpe.org/07/11/2004 0:15:18
The Robert Mapplethorpe Foundation, Inc. | Biography
BIOGRAPHY
Robert Mapplethorpe was born in 1946,
the third of six children. He
remembered a very secure childhood
on Long Island, which he summed up
by saying, “I come from suburban
America. It was a very safe
environment, and it was a good place
to come from in that it was a good
place to leave.” He received a B.F.A.
from Pratt Institute in Brooklyn, where
he produced artwork in a variety of
media. He had not taken any of his
own photographs yet, but he was
making art that incorporated many
Self-Portrait, 1975 photographic images appropriated
from other sources, including pages
torn from magazines and books. This
early interest reflected the importance
of the photographic image in the
culture and art of our time, including
the work of such notable artists as
Andy Warhol, whom Mapplethorpe
greatly admired.
Mapplethorpe took his first

photographs soon thereafter, using a
Polaroid camera. He did not consider
himself a photographer, but wished to
use his own photographic images in his
paintings, rather than pictures from
magazines. “I never liked
photography,” he is quoted as saying,
“Not for the sake of photography. I like
the object. I like the photographs when
you hold them in your hand.”His first
Polaroids were self-portraits and the
first of a series of portraits of his close
friend, the singer-artist-poet Patti
Smith. These early photographic works
were generally shown in groups or
elaborately presented in shaped and
painted frames that were as significant
to the finished piece as the photograph
itself. The shift to photography as
Mapplethorpe’s sole means of
expression happened gradually during
the mid-seventies. He acquired a large
format press camera and began taking
http://www.mapplethorpe.org/biography.html (1 de 2)07/11/2004 0:15:27

photographs of a wide circle of friends

and acquaintances. These included
artists, composers, socialites,
pornographic film stars and members
of the S & M underground. Some of
these photographs were shocking for
their content but exquisite in their
technical mastery. Mapplethorpe told
ARTnews in late 1988, “I don’t like that
particular word ‘shocking.’ I’m looking
for the unexpected. I’m looking for
things I’ve never seen before…I was in
a position to take those pictures. I felt
an obligation to do them.”
During the early 1980s, Mapplethorpe’s

photographs began a shift toward a
phase of refinement of subject and an
emphasis on classical formal beauty.
During this period he concentrated on
statuesque male and female nudes,
delicate flower still lifes, and formal
portraits of artists and celebrities. He
continued to challenge the definition of
photography by introducing new
techniques and formats to his oeuvre:
color Polaroids, photogravure,
platinum prints on paper and linen,
Cibachomes and dye transfer color
prints, as well as his earlier black-and-
white gelatin silver prints.
Mapplethorpe produced a consistent

body of work that strove for balance
and perfection and established him in
the top rank of twentieth-century
artists. In 1987 he established the
Robert Mapplethorpe Foundation to
promote photography, support
museums that exhibit photographic art,
and to fund medical research and
finance projects in the fight against
AIDS and HIV-related infection.
Top of Page
Copyright © The Robert Mapplethorpe Foundation. All Rights Reserved.
http://www.mapplethorpe.org/biography.html (2 de 2)07/11/2004 0:15:27

The Robert Mapplethorpe Foundation, Inc. | Selected Works
SELECTED WORKS
The categories to the left feature the
primary themes of Robert
Mapplethorpe's photography. Each
section offers a sampling of 10 images.
Self-Portrait, 1985
http://www.mapplethorpe.org/selectedworks.html07/11/2004 0:15:33
The Robert Mapplethorpe Foundation, Inc. | Selected Works- Flowers
Flowers, 1982
http://www.mapplethorpe.org/flowers.html07/11/2004 0:15:37
The Robert Mapplethorpe Foundation, Inc. | Selected Works- Nudes: Female
Patti Smith, 1976
http://www.mapplethorpe.org/femalenudes.html07/11/2004 0:15:40
The Robert Mapplethorpe Foundation, Inc. | Selected Works- Nudes: Male
Ken Moody and Robert Sherman, 1984
http://www.mapplethorpe.org/malenudes.html07/11/2004 0:15:42
The Robert Mapplethorpe Foundation, Inc. | Selected Works- Portraits
Peter Gabriel, 1986
http://www.mapplethorpe.org/portraits.html07/11/2004 0:15:46
The Robert Mapplethorpe Foundation, Inc. | Selected Works- Statuary
Female Torso, 1978
http://www.mapplethorpe.org/statuary.html07/11/2004 0:15:48
The Robert Mapplethorpe Foundation, Inc. | Selected Works- Self Portraits
Self Portrait, 1975
http://www.mapplethorpe.org/selfportraits.html07/11/2004 0:15:51
The Robert Mapplethorpe Foundation, Inc. | Selected Works- Unique
Self Portrait, 1973
http://www.mapplethorpe.org/unique.html07/11/2004 0:15:54
MAPPLETHORPE FOUNDATION
After discovering, in 1986 that he had been diagnosed with AIDS, Robert
Mapplethorpe was determined to build a lasting artistic legacy. He accelerated his
creative efforts, broadened the sweep of his photographic inquiry, accepted
increasingly challenging commissions, and, despite the ravages of his illness,
continued to create powerful images up until his death in 1989.
After coming to grips with his diagnosis, Mapplethorpe began to discuss with his
friends and professional advisers the best way to preserve and manage his archive
of photographs after his death. The consensus was that the appropriate vehicle to
protect his work, to advance his creative vision, and to promote the causes he cared
about was a foundation -- a not-for-profit organization managed by friends and
advisors, people he knew and trusted, with substantial professional credentials, who
after he was gone would work together to attain his goals. With characteristic
foresight, Mapplethorpe decided to move forward immediately, realizing that the
only way to ensure that the proposed foundation would become the institution he
envisioned was to establish it and make it fully operational while he was still alive
to oversee it.
The Robert Mapplethorpe Foundation, Inc. was founded on May 27, 1988, some
ten months before the artist's death. Robert Mapplethorpe funded the Foundation
with substantial contributions, selected four trustees to serve with him on its board,
and was appointed its first president. He also established the Foundation's initial
philanthropic mandate, targeting the area of his greatest concern: the recognition of
photography as an art form of the same importance as painting and sculpture. He
directed that the net revenues proceeds from the sale of his works be used to benefit
those museums and other artistic institutions that had shown particular interest in
establishing photography departments or expanding their existing ones. The
Foundation's first gift went to the University of Pennsylvania's Institute for
Contemporary Art-not, in fact, to sponsor the now legendarily controversial
Mapplethorpe exhibition
The Perfect Moment
, but to assist the ICA in producing the handsome catalogue that accompanied the
show.
Sadly, as Mapplethorpe's work traveled the country in

The Perfect Moment
, his medical condition continued to worsen. The epidemic had raged for years, but
there were still few, if any, medical treatments that could slow the rate at which
HIV destroyed the immune system. Notwithstanding his clear-sighted and
hardheaded plans for his own demise, Mapplethorpe, with characteristic valor,
never relinquished the fierce hope that he could survive. With great determination,
he pursued every medical possibility. By January 1989 he had visited or received
doctors and researchers from his home state of New York, from Washington and
California, and even from foreign countries, including Japan, Germany, and France
-- unfortunately, to no avail.
In late February 1989, despite his rapidly deteriorating condition, he made a
http://www.mapplethorpe.org/foundation.html (1 de 3)07/11/2004 0:15:56

courageous decision to leave his home in Manhattan and travel to Boston's New
England Deaconess Hospital, where some of the most meaningful and advanced
medical research in the AIDS field was being conducted. There, he came to
appreciate first-hand the enormous task faced by the research immunologist in
battling the fiendish complexity and sophistication of the HIV/AIDS virus. During
the last weeks of his life, he supplemented the Foundation's existing goal of
supporting photography with a new second mandate: to support medical research in
the HIV/AIDS area, in the hope of halting the continuing tragedy of men and
women dying before they reached their most creative and productive years. His trip
to Boston was his last. Tragically, he died there, at age forty-two, on March 9,
1989. AIDS had come too soon for him, too long before the promising new life-
saving treatments that his own philanthropic efforts would help to eventually
develop.
Mapplethorpe is considered by many art scholars to be among the most important

American photographers of the latter half of the twentieth century. Since his death,
his work has been the subject of numerous exhibitions in galleries and museums
throughout the world, including several major traveling retrospectives. But the
works he left behind are only part of his artistic legacy; the other part is his
foundation.
In keeping with Mapplethorpe's wishes, The Robert Mapplethorpe Foundation has

spent millions of dollars to fund medical research in the fight against AIDS and
HIV infection. It has provided study grants to university research centers and
established important medical facilities and programs, such as the Robert
Mapplethorpe Laboratory for AIDS Research at Harvard Medical School in Boston,
the Robert Mapplethorpe AIDS Treatment Center at Beth Israel Medical Center in
New York, and the Robert Mapplethorpe Center for HIV Research at St. Vincent's
Hospital and Medical Center of New York. The Foundation has also provided
substantial financial support to the American Foundation for AIDS Research
(AmFAR), which was one of the first recipients of Mapplethorpe's generosity
during his lifetime.
In the field of the photographic arts, the Foundation has funded numerous
publications on photography, supported exhibitions at various art institutions, and
provided grants-in the form of funding or gifts of original Mapplethorpe works-to
qualified art institutions, ranging from the world's major art museums to small
university galleries. In 1993, the Foundation provided a major gift to the Solomon
R. Guggenheim Foundation to create the Robert Mapplethorpe Gallery and
inaugurate the Guggenheim Museum's photography department and program.
In addition to its charitable work, the Foundation works to maintain Mapplethorpe's

artistic legacy by organizing and/or lending to Mapplethorpe exhibitions around the
world, preserving his archive of vintage editioned prints, strictly maintaining the
editions he established during his lifetime, and placing his work in important
museum collections around the world.
Top of Page


The Robert Mapplethorpe Foundation, Inc. | Exhibitions
EXHIBITIONS
As exhibition dates may change, please contact the venue for a confirmation
of viewing hours and availability.
To be automatically informed of new exhibitions please add your name to our

mailing list.
Archeology of Elegance 1980-2000: Twenty Years of Fashion Photography

Organized by:
Marion de Beaupre Productions
213 Boulevard Raspail
75014 Paris, France
Musée du Jeu de Paume, Paris, France, January 17 - March 16, 2003

Extended through January 1, 2005
*please contact Marion de Beaupre Productions for exhibition dates
Kyouka World Flowers

Organized by:
Dr. Kyouka Kanayama Uraku
2-7-13 Kita-aoyama, Minato-ku, Tokyo
Tel.; 03-5411-0111
One minute walk from Gaien-mae subway station.
October 23-October 30, 2004
http://www.proweb.jp/flower
Robert Mapplethorpe
Weinstein Gallery
908 West 46th Street
Minneapolis, MN 55419
612-822-1722
Tuesday - Saturday 12-5 pm
October 15 - December 4, 2004
Opening reception,
Friday, October 15, 2004
6:00pm to 8:30pm
Robert Mapplethorpe: Self Portraits

Fay Gold Gallery
764 Miami Circle, Suite 210
Atlanta, GA 30324
404-233-3843
October 9 - Nov. 15, 2004
Spirit of Creativity at the Seaport: Past and Present

Organized by:
South Street Seaport Museum
207 Front St
New York, NY 10038
http://www.mapplethorpe.org/exhibitions.html (1 de 3)07/11/2004 0:15:58

Extended through July 31, 2004
Likeness: Portraits of Artists by other Artists

Organized by:
Independent Curators International (ICI)
799 Broadway, Suite 205
New York, NY 10003
Extended through May 31, 2005

*please contact ICI for exhibition dates and venues
Rose c’est la vie

Organized by:
Tel Aviv Museum of Art
27 Shaul Hamelech Blvd
POB 33288
The Gold Meir Cultural Center, 61332 Tel Aviv
Israel
July 1, 2004 – Oct 20, 2004
Flowers Observed, Flowers Transformed

Organized by:
The Andy Warhol Museum
117 Sandusky Street
Pittsburgh, PA 15212-5890
May 15 – September 5, 2004
Robert Mapplethorpe and the Classical Tradition: Photographs and

Mannerist Prints
Organized by:
The Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum
1071 Fifth Avenue
New York, NY 10128
Deutsche Guggenheim Museum, Berlin, Germany

July 24 – Oct 13, 2004
The State Hermitage Museum, St. Petersburg, Russia

November 2, 2004 – January 23, 2005
Moscow House of Photography, Moscow, Russia TBC
The Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, New York, New York TBC
Instant Instincts/Instinti Instantanei-Arte in Polaroid, in the works of

Nobuyoshi Araki, Robert Mapplethorpe, Carlo Mollino, Yasumasa Morimura
and Mario Schifano
organized by Galleria In Arco, Turin, Italy and Daniela Palazzoli
Galleria In Arco

Turin, Italy
April 1, 2004- May 22, 2004
The World of Robert Mapplethorpe

organized by Merano arte edificio Cassa di Risparmio, Merano, Italy
Merano arte edificio Cassa di Risparmio

Merano, Italy
July 23, 2004 through August 29th 2004
The Flower as Image: From Monet to Jeff Koons

organized by the Louisiana Museum of Modern Art, Humlebæk, Denmark and The
Fondation Beyeler, Riehen/Basel, Switzerland
Louisiana Museum of Modern Art

Humlebæk, Denmark
September 10, 2004 through January 16, 2005
The Fondation Beyeler

Riehen/Basel, Switzerland
February 13, 2005 through May 22, 2005
Pandemic: Imaging AIDS

organized by Umbridge Editions, New York
The Contemporary Museum of Art / FAD Convent dels Angels

Barcelona, Spain
July 11, 2002 through August 15, 2002
The Apartheid Museum

Johannesburg, South Africa
September 5, 2002 through October 15, 2002
The United Nations

New York, NY
November 24, 2002 through December 30, 2002
Moscow State University

Moscow, Russia
January 15, 2003 through February 30, 2003
Extended through December 6, 2005

The Robert Mapplethorpe Foundation, Inc. | FAQ
FREQUENTLY ASKED QUESTIONS
Q: I'm doing research on Robert Mapplethorpe. Does the Foundation

have an archive that I can use or scholars I can consult?
A: The Foundation does have research facilities. You must present a
written proposal for review and approval by the Foundation. You can
send a proposal to the attention of Joree Adilman, via fax: (212) 941-
4764. For general information about the artist and his times, try
bookstores and libraries in your area.
Q: Can the general public view artworks by Robert Mapplethorpe that

the Foundation currently owns?
A: No. The Foundation does not have a public exhibition space. Many of
Mapplethorpe’s works can be seen at museums and galleries
throughout the United States and abroad. The largest single collection
of his work is at the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum in New York
City.
Q: Where can I purchase an original photograph by Robert

Mapplethorpe?
A: Please contact one of The Foundation's representative galleries by
clicking here.
Q: I'd like to reproduce photographs by Robert Mapplethorpe as

illustrations in a book or article that I'm writing. Can you tell me
how I can get permission to do this?
A: The Estate of Robert Mapplethorpe controls the copyright to Robert
Mapplethorpe’s artworks, regardless of who owns specific works of
art. Anyone wishing to reproduce Mapplethorpe’s work in a
newspaper, book or research paper must contact Anne Kennedy or
Michael Van Horne at Art & Commerce Anthology, the licensing
agency for the Estate, Tel: (212) 886-0575, Fax: (212) 645-8724.
Q: I'd like to use Mapplethorpe imagery in an advertisement, a

magazine spread, or in other commercial ways, such as licensed
merchandise. How can I get permission to do this?
A: You can contact Anne Kennedy or Michael Van Horne at Art &
Commerce Anthology, the licensing agency for the Estate, Tel: (212)
886-0575, Fax: (212) 645-8724.
http://www.mapplethorpe.org/faq.html (1 de 3)07/11/2004 0:16:00

Q: Can I buy Mapplethorpe related merchandise, such as T-shirts,

posters, postcards, notecards, etc.from the Foundation?
A: No, The Foundation does not sell these products directly, but does
license the reproduction of Robert Mapplethorpe’s work to
merchandisers for use on various products. You can shop at the
Foundation’s on-line store at by clicking here.
Q: Can you tell me how much my Robert Mapplethorpe photograph is

worth? What are the current selling prices of his art works?
A: The Robert Mapplethorpe Foundation does not appraise Robert
Mapplethorpe’s art work. If you want a professional appraisal,
contact the appraisal department of Christie's (212-546-1000) or
Sotheby's (212-606-7000) auction houses.
Q: I would like to have my Mapplethorpe work authenticated. Does

the Foundation do this?
A: Authentication of Robert Mapplethorpe’s work is available through
The Robert Mapplethorpe Foundation. You must call the Foundation
for an appointment at (212) 941-4760, and be willing to leave the work
at the Foundation for approximately one week. The fee for
authentication of the work is $200.
Q: Does the Robert Mapplethorpe Foundation purchase artwork by

Mapplethorpe or other artists?
A: No, but it does sell Robert Mapplethorpe’s work to select museums,
galleries and private collectors. Potential purchasers may call the
Foundation office at (212) 941-4760 for further information.
Q: Does the Foundation accept gifts of Robert Mapplethorpe’s

artworks or memorabilia?
A: Yes. Please call the Foundation at (212) 941-4760.
Q: Does The Robert Mapplethorpe Foundation give grants to

individual artists?
A: The Foundation does not give grants directly to individuals. A good
place for individual visual artists to find out about grant
opportunities is Visual Artist Info Hotline, 800-232-2789, which
operates Monday - Friday, 2-5 pm EST. Also see The Foundation
Center and Creative Capital Foundation.
Q: Does The Robert Mapplethorpe Foundation give grants to

organizations outside of the United States?

A: No, the Foundation grants funding only to organizations within the

United States.
Q: What are the Foundation's funding guidelines?

A: The foundation's guidelines can be reviewed by clicking here.
Top of Page

The Robert Mapplethorpe Foundation, Inc. | Store
STORE
The Mapplethorpe Store features the largest
collection of Robert Mapplethorpe merchandise on
the internet. All of the available items have been
created with the authorization of, and in many cases
in conjunction with, The Robert Mapplethorpe
Foundation.
Your purchase helps support the programs of The

Robert Mapplethorpe Foundation.
To be automatically informed of new items and

special offers please add your name to our store
mailing list.
Catalog- The Perfect Moment

$50.00 More info click here
Copyright © 2001-2004 Robert Mapplethorpe Foundation All Rights Reserved
http://www.imageexchange.com/mvx10/engine.cgi?store=mapplethorpe07/11/2004 0:16:08
Robert Mapplethorpe Foundation Online Exhibitions 2004
The Robert Mapplethorpe Foundation Online Exhibitions 2004
The Robert Mapplethorpe Foundation is pleased to introduce two online exhibitions

curated by graduate students from The Center for Curatorial Studies, Bard College,
New York and Columbia University/ Whitney: Modern Art and Curatorial Studies
program, New York.
This new project endeavors to increase access to the Mapplethorpe archive by

engaging emerging curators and writers with the work of Robert Mapplethorpe, in
particular the works in the archive that have rarely or never before been exhibited.
Exhibitions:
Steven Matijcio
Center for Curatorial Studies, Bard College.
Momentum
Jinyoung Kim
Columbia University/ Whitney: Modern Art and Curatorial Studies.
Emphasizing Invisibility and Poetic Simplicity: Understanding Robert Mapplethorpe’s
Work in Relation to Asian Painting.
NOTE: To view all pictures, please disable any pop-up blocking tools.
All Mapplethorpe works © copyright Robert Mapplethorpe Foundation
http://www.mapplethorpe.org/online/exhibitions/07/11/2004 0:16:11
Momentum
Back to Home
http://www.mapplethorpe.org/online/exhibitions/Matijcio/Pictures/Infinity.htm07/11/2004 0:16:35
http://www.mapplethorpe.org/online/exhibitions/Kim/Pictures/Thumbnail.htm
View the Essay
http://www.mapplethorpe.org/online/exhibitions/Kim/Pictures/Thumbnail.htm (1 de 2)07/11/2004 0:16:43

http://www.mapplethorpe.org/online/exhibitions/Kim/Pictures/Thumbnail.htm
View the Essay
Back to Home
http://www.mapplethorpe.org/online/exhibitions/Kim/Pictures/Thumbnail.htm (2 de 2)07/11/2004 0:16:43

Emphasizing Invisibility and Poetic Simplicity: Understanding Robert Mapplethorpe’s Work in Relation to Asian Painting
Back to Home
Emphasizing Invisibility and Poetic Simplicity:

Understanding Robert Mapplethorpe’s Work in Relation to Asian Painting
Today the public may know more about elements of Robert Mapplethorpe’s personal
biography—for example, his homosexuality and the triumphs and tragedies of his life—than
they know of his deeply personal approach to art. Unfortunately, we still do not know enough
about the philosophy and aesthetics underlying the choices he made in his work. We might
gain some understanding, however, by noting that Mapplethorpe’s photographs share an
aesthetic sensibility and ideology with traditional Asian paintings—in that both emphasize
invisibility and are stylistically characterized by a poetic simplicity, an economy of expression.
An awareness of the function and meaning of space in Asian paintings is particularly valuable
for understanding Mapplethorpe’s photographs. Rather than considering the various
sociopolitical elements informing Mapplethorpe’s photography, this online exhibition will
examine more fundamentally aesthetic notions, such as beauty and composition.
Emphasizing Invisibility
An abundance of empty space typifies Asian art. Air in the mountains, or central white spaces
and clouds, create a zone of calm within paintings and simultaneously offer viewers a chance
to participate in the artistic process, as they relentlessly pursue a perfection that is inherently
incomplete. Unlike the common Western perception of empty space as flat, inert, and lifeless,
Asian landscape paintings use voids to represent dynamic and active spaces linking what is
visible to the invisible, allegorically symbolizing a harmony between each composition’s
subject and the universe. As such, the paintings become embodiments of specific moments in
time; yet concurrently represent a potential flow of time created by the expressive use of
empty space. This duality of meaning in Asian painting invites viewers to experience the
essence of the subjects in relation to time and space on both physical and meditative levels.
Regardless of subject type, many of Mapplethorpe’s photographs demonstrate a careful

allotment of space, as the interaction of his subjects within given spaces allows the subjects to
identify and define each other. His intended voids become part of his formal language; Chest
(Fig. 1), a composition of four cubical panels, leaves the top right panel virtually empty. A
portrait of Brice Marden (Fig. 2) consists of three windowed frames and again leaves one
window totally empty. This anticipated composition could be traced from the popular form of
Asian screen paintings (Fig. 3). The four panels of Landscape Screens from 17th-century
Japan attend to blank space and an exquisite modulation of painting, creating a space at once
grand and sophisticated. Once again, the composition of this painting emphasizes blank space
and establishes a tension based on the framing and format. Upon encountering the work,
viewers are thrown into a psychological struggle to fill the empty panel with an image of the
remaining section of chest. A lack of physical representation in the panel strengthens the
chest’s identity through power of suggestion and acknowledgment of memory, while its
validity is being challenged in reaction to the premeditated incompleteness. The panel is
http://www.mapplethorpe.org/online/exhibitions/Kim/poetic.htm (1 de 5)07/11/2004 0:16:45

empty, yet complete, infinitely capable and restrictive. As with many Asian paintings, the
viewer must fill in the unfinished space; this same premise is a primary foundation of
Mapplethorpe’s aesthetic goals.
Spatially, Mapplethorpe’s photographs expand and contract by their use of empty space.
Departing from simple representative characteristics of photography—meaning that the subject
is frozen and fixed in time—his photographs often take a 360-degree turn. Viewers first focus
on the object, then space, then the interaction between space and object, finally returning to the
object as the main subject. The focus of Mapplethorpe’s flower-themed photographs lies in the
empty space, a visualization of the concept of infinitude and meditation by emptying one’s
mind, (Fig 4) In Orchids, 1985 (Fig. 5), a blue bowl holds a delicate orchid in full bloom.
Although flowers serve as a traditional subject for still life in Western painting,
Mapplethorpe’s flower-themed works have a particular flair for intentionally manipulating
empty space. This particular photograph shows a white wall extending upwards into infinity;
this seemingly empty, negative, unfinished, and untouched space is charged with an invisible
dynamic energy and takes on the quality of meditative emptiness so evident in Asian brush
paintings; (Fig. 6). Such a background is as important as the foregrounded object for creating a
photographic subject. This empty background extends the photograph beyond the frame of the
visual field, creating what Roland Barthes called a “blind field,” which gives a photograph the
[1]
potential to communicate beyond what is simply visible on paper. In this way,
Mapplethorpe’s use of empty space achieves a timeless harmony simultaneously within and
beyond the picture frame.
Poetic Simplicity
Once upon a time, there was a father and a son. One day, the old father asked his son to
“do” their backyard. When his son finished sweeping the yard, his father was not quite
satisfied with the result. “It is not done yet. Do it again.” When the son got tired of
sweeping the yard, he complained, “Father! I have cleared the entire yard. There is not
even a single speck of dust. Why do you keep saying that it is not done yet?” Then, the
father came out to the yard, and shook one of the maple trees. Suddenly, there were
colorful leaves spread over the yard.
The preceding episode, an extract from a Korean folk tale, asks us to contemplate the question,
“What is artistic beauty in life?” The boy’s father does not want his son to merely complete a
chore. He expects the boy to discover that beauty enters life naturally; the newly fallen leaves
are the finishing touches that complete the yard as an artistic entity. Knocking the leaves down
is the father’s artistic expression of how a yard is created. Mapplethorpe’s still life and portrait
photographs share a similar aesthetic sensibility and ideology in the presence of two seemingly
incompatible qualities—directness and ambiguity.
Another key element for understanding Mapplethorpe’s work in relation to Asian painting is
recognizing the coexistence of spatial clarity and ambiguity in his photographs. His figures

have the stark essence of two-dimensional objects, while simultaneously disappearing into the
background. Mapplethorpe’s Joanne Russell, 1986 and Self Portrait, 1988 (Fig. 7), are
portraits done in silhouette shapes. Rather than merely photographing Russell, or himself, he
objectifies figures, equating Russell’s face with a decorative pin on her chest, or his own with
the skull head cane, positioning all these elements as floating objects within black space. Thus
the space in the photograph becomes a second subject, fluid elements that both separate and
objectify the subject, all the while intimately engaging the objects within and beyond the
photograph. Mapplethorpe’s nude photographs and high-contrast portraits manifest a
simultaneous presence of visual clarity and ambiguity. In his photographs, empty space
separates and blends objects, and the object becomes almost inseparable from the invisible in
space, even as an image remains in perfect focus.
Oriental painting indicates the temporality of life by emphasizing the passage of time that is
evident in each brush stroke. Just as an Asian painter uses a brush, Mapplethorpe implies
movement in time and space with a stroke of light in the following works: Lisa Marie, 1987,
Lydia Cheng, 1985, Lisa Lyon, 1982, Tit Profile, 1980, and New York City Contemporary
Ballet, 1980 (Fig. 8). The light in these works is a mobile element that serves to juxtapose the
concept of a “still life” with the visual experience of speed. In such contrast, Mapplethorpe
instills a poetic simplicity that becomes essential to his studio photography. The characters in
Japanese calligraphy carry a deep significance in their visible shape alone and share a similar
sensibility. The boneless style of brushwork is rough and spontaneous, conveying a great sense
of movement (Fig. 9), much like a studio light in Mapplethorpe’s work.
Mapplethorpe also manipulates light to stillness, as illustrated in Self Portrait, 1975 and
Parrot Tulips, 1988 (Fig. 10). Both these images are of a painterly quality, surrounded by
space highly celebrated with light. The light acts as pigment, highlighting the artistry inherent
in the contours of the object and the space that surrounds them. Much like the fallen maple
leaves in the foregoing fable, Mapplethorpe meticulously uses simple elements such as “light
and space” in seemingly free and banal manners that ultimately create poetic beauty. As in life
itself, the methodology is direct and simple, yet the resulting images convey a complex
multitude of layers and meanings. With light, space, simplicity, and ambiguity, Robert
Mapplethorpe gives definite forms to the essence of his subjects.
While recognizing the sociopolitical issues addressed in Mapplethorpe’s photograph’s is

essential for appreciating his message, acknowledging his compositional virtuosity is also
essential and must not be brushed aside. Viewing his work in the context of traditional Asian
painting sheds light on his aesthetic principles. The fundamental beauty and simplicity in his
compositions offer a stark but fitting counterpoint to the aggressiveness of his topics. It also
brings a fruitful line of inquiry to the rich and complex personal iconography that evolved over
the course of Mapplethorpe’s short life.

Click here to view all pictures in thumbnail version
[1]
Barthes, Roland, Camera Lucida, trans. Richard Howard, New York: Hill and Wang, 1980, p. 57.
Checklist of works:
1. MAP# DT NE: Orchids, 1985

2. MAP# 1853: Parrot Tulips, 1988
3. MAP# 142: Tulip, 1977
4. MAP# 138: Self Portrait, 1975
5. MAP# 1860: Self Portrait, 1988
6. MAP# 1816: Lisa Marie, 1987
7. MAP# 1572: Lydia Cheng, 1985
8. MAP# 1714: Joanne Russell, 1986
9. MAP# 1867: Andy Warhol, 1986
10. MAP# UC005: Chest, 1987
11. MAP# UC 049: Brice Marden, 1976
12. MAP# U302: Self Portrait, 1974
13. MAP# 765: Lisa Lyon, 1982
14. MAP# 128: Lucinda Childs, 1977
15. MAP# 157: American Flag, 1977
16. MAP# 225: Ariel Phillips, 1979
17. MAP# 441: Patti Smith, 1975
18. MAP# 508: Tit Profile, 1980
19. MAP# 511: Peter Reed, 1980
20. MAP# 546: New York City Contemporary Ballet, 1980
21. Landscape Scenes:
Daitokuji, Kyoto, 1641
Fusuma Panels for the Abbot’s Quarters of the Honbo, Daitokuji
Four panels, ink on paper
Each: 70.4(H) x 35.8(W) inches (178.9 x 91.0 cm)
Courtesy of Tokyo Metropolitan Art Museum
22. Lee Ha-Ung (1820-1898)
Orchids and Rock
Ten-panel folding screen, ink on silk
© 1996 Koran Studies Institute, Korea University, Seoul
23. Kang Se-Hwang (1713-1791)
Four Gentlemen (Orchid)
Ink on paper
© 1996 Koran Studies Institute, Korea University, Seoul
24. Jiun Onko (1718-1804)
Two Characters: “Shinnyo”

Hanging scroll
11.8(H) x 19(W) inches (30 x 48.3 cm)
25. Calligraphy, “Yagasu Shoka no Tsuki”, 1668
Hanging scroll, ink on paper
50.5(H) x 10.5(W) inches (128.3 x 26.8cm)
Private Collection
Back to Home

http://www.mapplethorpe.org/online/exhibitions/Kim/Pictures/BigImages/546-NYC%20Contemp%20Ballet1980-dup.jpg
http://www.mapplethorpe.org/online/exhibitions/Kim/Pictures/BigImages/546-NYC%20Contemp%20Ballet1980-dup.jpg07/11/2004 0:16:50
http://www.mapplethorpe.org/online/exhibitions/Kim/Pictures/BigImages/511-Peter%20Reed1980-dup.jpg
http://www.mapplethorpe.org/online/exhibitions/Kim/Pictures/BigImages/511-Peter%20Reed1980-dup.jpg07/11/2004 0:16:59
http://www.mapplethorpe.org/online/exhibitions/Kim/Pictures/BigImages/441-Patti%20Smith1975-dup.jpg
http://www.mapplethorpe.org/online/exhibitions/Kim/Pictures/BigImages/441-Patti%20Smith1975-dup.jpg07/11/2004 0:17:03
http://www.mapplethorpe.org/online/exhibitions/Kim/Pictures/BigImages/225-Ariel%20Phillips1979-dup.jpg
http://www.mapplethorpe.org/online/exhibitions/Kim/Pictures/BigImages/225-Ariel%20Phillips1979-dup.jpg07/11/2004 0:17:11
http://www.mapplethorpe.org/online/exhibitions/Kim/Pictures/BigImages/157-American%20Flag1977-dup.jpg
http://www.mapplethorpe.org/online/exhibitions/Kim/Pictures/BigImages/157-American%20Flag1977-dup.jpg07/11/2004 0:17:16
http://www.mapplethorpe.org/online/exhibitions/Kim/Pictures/BigImages/1867-Andy%20Warhol1986-dup.jpg
http://www.mapplethorpe.org/online/exhibitions/Kim/Pictures/BigImages/1867-Andy%20Warhol1986-dup.jpg07/11/2004 0:17:26
http://www.mapplethorpe.org/online/exhibitions/Kim/Pictures/BigImages/128-Lucinda%20Childs1977-dup.jpg
http://www.mapplethorpe.org/online/exhibitions/Kim/Pictures/BigImages/128-Lucinda%20Childs1977-dup.jpg07/11/2004 0:17:30
http://www.mapplethorpe.org/online/exhibitions/Kim/Pictures/BigImages/508-Tit%20Profile1980-dup.jpg
http://www.mapplethorpe.org/online/exhibitions/Kim/Pictures/BigImages/508-Tit%20Profile1980-dup.jpg07/11/2004 0:17:37
http://www.mapplethorpe.org/online/exhibitions/Kim/Pictures/BigImages/138-Self%20Portrait1975-dup.jpg
http://www.mapplethorpe.org/online/exhibitions/Kim/Pictures/BigImages/138-Self%20Portrait1975-dup.jpg07/11/2004 0:17:40
http://www.mapplethorpe.org/online/exhibitions/Kim/Pictures/BigImages/765-Lisa%20Lyon1982-dup.jpg
http://www.mapplethorpe.org/online/exhibitions/Kim/Pictures/BigImages/765-Lisa%20Lyon1982-dup.jpg07/11/2004 0:17:47
http://www.mapplethorpe.org/online/exhibitions/Kim/Pictures/BigImages/1853-Parrot%20Tulips1988-dup.jpg
http://www.mapplethorpe.org/online/exhibitions/Kim/Pictures/BigImages/1853-Parrot%20Tulips1988-dup.jpg07/11/2004 0:17:51
http://www.mapplethorpe.org/online/exhibitions/Kim/Pictures/BigImages/142A-Tulip1977-dup.jpg
http://www.mapplethorpe.org/online/exhibitions/Kim/Pictures/BigImages/142A-Tulip1977-dup.jpg07/11/2004 0:17:57
http://www.mapplethorpe.org/online/exhibitions/Kim/Pictures/BigImages/NE%20Orchids1985.jpg
http://www.mapplethorpe.org/online/exhibitions/Kim/Pictures/BigImages/NE%20Orchids1985.jpg07/11/2004 0:18:07
http://www.mapplethorpe.org/online/exhibitions/Kim/Pictures/BigImages/1572-Lydia%20Cheng1985-dup.jpg
http://www.mapplethorpe.org/online/exhibitions/Kim/Pictures/BigImages/1572-Lydia%20Cheng1985-dup.jpg07/11/2004 0:18:13
http://www.mapplethorpe.org/online/exhibitions/Kim/Pictures/BigImages/1714-Joanne%20Russell1986-dup.jpg
http://www.mapplethorpe.org/online/exhibitions/Kim/Pictures/BigImages/1714-Joanne%20Russell1986-dup.jpg07/11/2004 0:18:18
http://www.mapplethorpe.org/online/exhibitions/Kim/Pictures/BigImages/1860-Self%20Portrait1988-dup.jpg
http://www.mapplethorpe.org/online/exhibitions/Kim/Pictures/BigImages/1860-Self%20Portrait1988-dup.jpg07/11/2004 0:18:23
http://www.mapplethorpe.org/online/exhibitions/Kim/Pictures/BigImages/1816-Lisa%20Marie-Torso1987-dup.jpg
http://www.mapplethorpe.org/online/exhibitions/Kim/Pictures/BigImages/1816-Lisa%20Marie-Torso1987-dup.jpg07/11/2004 0:18:28
http://www.mapplethorpe.org/online/exhibitions/Kim/Pictures/BigImages/UC-005-Chest1987-dup.jpg
http://www.mapplethorpe.org/online/exhibitions/Kim/Pictures/BigImages/UC-005-Chest1987-dup.jpg07/11/2004 0:18:40
http://www.mapplethorpe.org/online/exhibitions/Kim/Pictures/BigImages/UC049%20Brice%20Marden1976-dup.jpg
http://www.mapplethorpe.org/online/exhibitions/Kim/Pictures/BigImages/UC049%20Brice%20Marden1976-dup.jpg07/11/2004 0:18:46
http://www.mapplethorpe.org/online/exhibitions/Kim/Pictures/BigImages/U-302-Self%20Portrait1974-dup.jpg
http://www.mapplethorpe.org/online/exhibitions/Kim/Pictures/BigImages/U-302-Self%20Portrait1974-dup.jpg07/11/2004 0:18:54
http://www.mapplethorpe.org/online/exhibitions/Kim/Pictures/BigImages/Picture24-JiunOnko.jpg
http://www.mapplethorpe.org/online/exhibitions/Kim/Pictures/BigImages/Picture24-JiunOnko.jpg07/11/2004 0:19:02
http://www.mapplethorpe.org/online/exhibitions/Kim/Pictures/BigImages/Picture21-screenpainting.jpg
http://www.mapplethorpe.org/online/exhibitions/Kim/Pictures/BigImages/Picture21-screenpainting.jpg07/11/2004 0:19:08
http://www.mapplethorpe.org/online/exhibitions/Kim/Pictures/BigImages/Picture23-KangSe-Hwang.jpg
http://www.mapplethorpe.org/online/exhibitions/Kim/Pictures/BigImages/Picture23-KangSe-Hwang.jpg07/11/2004 0:19:13
http://www.mapplethorpe.org/online/exhibitions/Kim/Pictures/BigImages/Picture25-Colligraphy.jpg
http://www.mapplethorpe.org/online/exhibitions/Kim/Pictures/BigImages/Picture25-Colligraphy.jpg (1 de 2)07/11/2004 0:19:17

http://www.mapplethorpe.org/online/exhibitions/Kim/Pictures/BigImages/Picture25-Colligraphy.jpg
http://www.mapplethorpe.org/online/exhibitions/Kim/Pictures/BigImages/Picture25-Colligraphy.jpg (2 de 2)07/11/2004 0:19:17

http://www.mapplethorpe.org/online/exhibitions/Kim/Pictures/BigImages/Picture22-LeeHa-Ungh.jpg
http://www.mapplethorpe.org/online/exhibitions/Kim/Pictures/BigImages/Picture22-LeeHa-Ungh.jpg07/11/2004 0:19:19
Momentum
Back to Home
Momentum
Whether resting momentarily, sleeping during the evening hours, posing for a picture, reclining lazily,
or standing perfectly still, we are always, without pause or recess, in motion. The heart pumps, blood
circulates, breath is taken in and out, the sun moves almost imperceptibly across the sky, and every
second that passes is one step further from birth, and one step closer to death. Yet even in demise, only
the individual’s physical vessel ceases to move, its memory living on in various ways, and its soul
ascending to another realm while other organisms around it begin the process of mourning, burial, and/
or moving on. Like the technological medium of the Internet that this exhibition inhabits, made to
function without beginning, end, or central command, every destination and apparent endpoint is just
another entryway to another series of portals and passageways. It continues, ad infinitum. The act of
photography has been said to interrupt this process, fashioning little ‘deaths’ by capturing and
sequestering moments of life onto film, paper, glass plates and various other materials that may differ
in format, but unite in the cessation of motion. However, is this ever completely true? Can the
dynamism of life and nature be fully immobilized by the eye of the camera, and frozen into the perfect,
autonomous moment? These are complex questions that cannot ever be entirely answered, but the
photographic work of artist Robert Mapplethorpe provides an invaluable lens by which to continue the
dialogue and peer deeper into its mystery.
Working with ever-greater refinement and precision to achieve immaculate compositional structure,
[1]
Mapplethorpe self-professedly pursued “perfection” in his artwork. From his earliest Polaroid’s and
assemblages to his penultimate clicks of the shutter, he consistently strove to package provocative and
often jarring subject matter into strict formal parameters, forging a spotless standard in the pristine
prints that followed. Whether flowers set in a piercing light, nudes and portraits of sculptural sublimity,
or sado-masochistic sex acts composed with drama and delicacy, the many subjects of Mapplethorpe
passed through the idealistic filter of his vision, sublimated into an airless arena of aesthetic purity. In
weaving this intricate fabric of lighting, balance, proportion, content, and emotional valence, he
endowed his art-works with a seductive mix of unrest and serenity, and distinguished a style all his own
[2]
in the process. Within this signature approach he evoked the ideals of Antiquity, and revealed his
http://www.mapplethorpe.org/online/exhibitions/Matijcio/Momentum.htm (1 de 8)07/11/2004 0:19:21

Momentum
ancient inspirations with the comment, “If I had been born 100 or 200 years ago, I might have been a
[3]
sculptor.” He quickly amended these words with the qualifying statement, “but photography is a
very quick way to see, to make sculpture”. Between substitution and amalgamation, Mapplethorpe’s
work teetered on the brink of two very different disciplines. Some of his earliest works were indeed
quite sculptural, and even as he maneuvered his way through assemblages and collage into a more
conventional photo-centric practice, Mapplethorpe’s sculptural proclivities lingered, and he explained

[4]
much of his work in plastic terms.
In this he was not alone, as numerous critics, writers and theoreticians came to entrench this
interpretation of his work – in an often, resolute manner – into the body of literature that grew around
his practice. A brief, but emblematic cross-section of this contingent begins with author and art
historian Charles A. Riley II, who argued, “Mapplethorpe’s idiom is one of unadulterated classicism,”
[5]
and enthusiastically acclaimed him “a priest of the Classical ideals of balance and serenity.” Curator
Janet Kardon echoed these sentiments and carefully detailed the sculptural dimensions of the artist’s
neoclassical enterprise, observing a serene “stillness” which surrounded images that, to her, “appear as
[6]
if they might have been chiseled.” In 1985, author and well-known photography scholar Susan
Sontag went as far as to eliminate the accidental and/or spontaneous from Mapplethorpe’s purview
[7]
altogether, arguing that his camera could capture only what could be posed and made perfect. Yet
through it all, through these and similar arguments from the artist and his onlookers alike, from
virtually the beginning of his career to its very last throes, a converse current sporadically bubbled to
the surface of his photographs. Recognition of this current (to be elaborated below) is not meant to
disavow a classical reading of Mapplethorpe’s oeuvre as incorrect or even misleading, but rather to
contest its totalizing implications with a group of photos that complicate previous assumptions and
enrich a body of work with that body’s seeming antithesis.
The works in this exhibition, although short in number compared to the multitude of examples
that articulate the aforementioned aspects of Mapplethorpe’s oeuvre, are arguably the most
representative of the turmoil that simmered throughout the artist’s life and work. Against the stasis

Momentum
inherent in the photographic frame, and his highly articulated aesthetic methodology, this collection of
photographs, each, in its own way, marks a passage of time. This passage tempers classical tenets with
unexpected contingency and blurs Mapplethorpe’s famed aesthetic pinnacle of “the perfect moment”
[8]
into momentum. For in every case the immobilizing gaze of the artist runs headlong into elements of
chance and unpredictability, creating images that slide in artificial suspension – their dynamic potential
momentarily paused, but never precluded from changing in the next instant.
For example, while Mapplethorpe pictured many of his human subjects in the same stone-bound
eternity of the ancient marble sculptures he also photographed, it is a modern-day version of
contrapposto that animates the playful prance of Melia Marden (Fig.1) and the penetrating forward step
of Raymond (Fig.2) as he ruptures his compositional frame. The artist spoke passionately about
comparing the look of his nudes to bronze or marble, and created a pantheon of immortals using an
array of classical formulae, but it is the nascent movement in these two images that presses against
previous parameters and suggests action that does not terminate in the instant. In two much earlier
works, the mischievous actions of the artist as he intrudes into the frame with outstretched arm (Fig.3)
and then exits it on outstretched toe (Fig.4) “move” in a parallel manner, using cropping and framing
techniques to create a sense of spontaneous action that supplants the timelessness of formal posture and
emphasizes the subject’s straining muscles and tree-like veins.
Moving from these pictorial devices that suggest movement, to the direct pursuit of moving elements,
compositional stillness evaporates further in the smoky, swirling exhalation of Jack Walls (Fig.5) and
the deep inhalation of a figure escaping (or perhaps entering) the binds of mummifying white gauze
(Fig.6). For with each, Mapplethorpe’s photography of visible breathing invokes air currents into
otherwise airless arenas, poetically representing life inside the subject, and outside the moment. In
other works picturing Gregory Hines (Fig.7), Molissa Fenley (Fig.8), Puerto Rican children (Fig.9) and
even himself (Fig.10), this dynamic combination of motion and life appears as blurring. And while
each ghostly blur – inscribing physical shifts that took place as Mapplethorpe clicked the shutter – is
admittedly frozen in frame, they nevertheless dissipate linear contours of shape and form as
Mapplethorpe’s impeccable focal sharpness succumbs to the messy dynamism of movement. Like the
stabbing knife thrust of Raymond (Fig.11), seen in profile as his hand, wrist and forearm merge into a

Momentum
single slurry of light, these photos cut into the stony anatomy of the artist’s classicism and bleed echoes
of movement past, present and future.
The element of light continues to play an integral role in many of the works making up
momentum, extending the ramifications raised by “blurring” into several other dimensions of
Mapplethorpe’s compositional structure. In this section of works, the careful studio lighting that
Mapplethorpe arranged to articulate the physical idealism of sculptural form, is adjusted and displaced
along with the figures it consequently affects. As a case in point, the chiseled musculature of Lisa Lyon
(which reminded Mapplethorpe of Michelangelo’s stolid female forms) is softly melted by adjacent
torchlight (Fig.12), casting her body in a grainy, shadowed haze as both she and the surrounding
torches dance and blur. In a related manner, rigid geometric form is bent by the play of light in both
Television (Fig.13) and the crouch of Dennis Speight (Fig.14). In the former, the heavy, boxed frame
of a television that is bolted to the wall and chained to its podium (by padlock), is almost alchemically
lightened by the face of an anonymous actress whose ephemeral flicker across the screen challenges all
the weight around her. In the latter, Speight’s initially compact, frozen crouch is made dynamic by
shadows that extend out from all sides, creating a sense of imminent (or just completed) motion as a
shadowy head and torso rise above him, and flanking, Futurismo-like lines simultaneously push his
body back and propel it forward.
In other works of this vein, studio and/or artificial lighting is replaced altogether by sunlight that
Mapplethorpe allowed to penetrate his aesthetic parameters, traipsing its way in and out of his
controlling gaze. The result is a series of images where the temporal intertwines with the stationary,
fusing them in matrices that simultaneously evoke elegant compositional skills and the energy of
unpredictability. In one instance, the fate of Medusa’s stare (that so often befalls the subjects of
Mapplethorpe) is eased, if not erased, by daubs and dashes of sunlight that frolic across a man’s bare
chest (Fig.15). In other related photos, as the sun backlights a ragged, timeworn American flag
(Fig.16), illuminates a passage through an ancient Venetian tunnel (Fig.17), and cuts into the timeless
realm of a modernist gallery space with an ad hoc sundial cast gently upon the floor (Fig.18), the artist
subtly transforms socio-cultural symbols of longevity and presence into fragile, shifting sites of
transition.

Momentum
A similar transformation would also touch organic forms in the work of Robert Mapplethorpe, creating
stirring, and sometimes tragic tableaux where the inevitable, and ultimately inescapable effects of
nature take their fated course. In some of these photographs, the power and beauty of elemental forces
are allowed to flash before our eyes with a minimum of mediation, fighting against the domineering
gaze of the camera’s eye. The lines between vitality and violence subsequently blur as the crashing
waves of the sea explode into electric light-bursts under a low horizon (Fig.19), and a forceful surge of
tropical wind sweeps through the fronds of a palm tree, turning its foliate crown into a vibrant web of
slashes, lines, and smears (Fig.20).
Yet from the perspective of Mapplethorpe, attuned as he was to the temporality of existence after being
afflicted with AIDS, it was arguably the unstoppable passageway from life to death where nature
became most powerfully manifest. In this respect, as in the oeuvre of this artist, flowers are afforded a
special status by their ability to simultaneously convey expressive content and elegant formal beauty.
Long considered a preeminent “still life” subject, made eternally vital and vivid by artists of all eras in
[9]
all disciplines, they are here made icons of a provisional existence. This is not to say that
Mapplethorpe was not a major contributor to the aforementioned still life tradition of flowers, but
rather to highlight a body of his works where lilies (Fig.21) and tulips (Fig.22) wilt under the weight of
time, feeling the severance from an earth their once vibrant blossoms now fall to in withering death. In
both these photographs, dying and still-turgid flowers are juxtaposed in vases, but the implied passage
from one state to the other is perhaps most poignantly communicated in another pair of tulips
photographed by Mapplethorpe in 1984. In this work (Fig.23), the tulips take on a compelling
anthropomorphic quality, poised on the verge of an intergenerational embrace as one blossom ascends
in new life, and the other droops with a life nearing its end. In this momentary pause, the otherwise
vacant space between the pair of tulips becomes a charged intersection of imminent, but enigmatic
intensity.
From anthropomorphism to the actual article, momentum rounds the loop of the infinity sign and
returns to its origin as the human body descends from its artificially suspended pedestal of classical
stasis, and becomes an icon of duration, life and change. The dramatic pose of Thomas (Fig.24) offers a
transitional case, where his otherwise powerful, muscular body is turned into a tense, clock-like

Momentum
component as his hands and arms literally hold back the relentless crush of a circular frame reminiscent
of the clocks that devour our time on a daily basis. Moving away from the classical body but retaining
his focus on time, Mapplethorpe delivers a more subtle, but perhaps more accurate emblem of
movement through life with the cigarette ashes that teeter precariously over the grasping fingers of
Iggy Pop (Fig.25). In this 1981 photograph, a fragile tower of smoldering ash consumes the attention of
this vivacious musician, making his eyes grow wide with apparent trepidation as previously fiery
matter prepares to crumble and inflict its painful, searing aftermath. Yet fear did not completely fill
Mapplethorpe’s eyes as he felt the cold grip of AIDS breaking down his immune system and pushing
him towards death. Like the previously described pair of tulips, this exhibition articulates the energy he
found in passage rather than endpoint. This is evident throughout the collection of photographs
gathered here, but especially so in a final case that pairs a portrait of Mary Beth Hurt with her baby
along with Mapplethorpe’s last self-portrait, in which he hauntingly clutches a death’s head cane (Fig.
26). For while both are iconic representations of shifting life stages in their own right, one symbolizing
the joy of regeneration among a mother and daughter clad in white, and the other of looming mortality
where the artist’s body disappears into the blackness of the background, together they are something
[10]
infinitely more – something seen only across time, in motion.
He communicated serenity, control and stillness in his artwork, but struggle and tension ultimately
shaped the life and practice of Robert Mapplethorpe. Momentum brings together a collection of images
that explore this reality, presenting photographs where the subject matter pushes back against the
artist’s immobilizing gaze and classicist values. In each tenuously suspended instant, and even more so
in combination among one another, the emphasis shifts to passage, transition, and that which escapes
the perfect moment. The profound dynamism that results is as much an emblem of the uncontrollability
of life, as it is of Mapplethorpe’s courage to venture into unfamiliar territory and confront his own
methods.
SM 2003

Momentum
View all Pictures here
Checklist of Works (with MAP #’s)

0138: Self-Portrait, 1975
0264: Legs on Toes, 1976
0157: American Flag, 1977
0294: Lily, 1979
0440: Texas Gallery, 1980
0496: Dennis Speight, 1980
0519: Waves, 1980
0558: Iggy Pop, 1981
0595: Children, Puerto Rico, 1981
0605: Palm Tree, Puerto Rico, 1981
0707: Lisa Lyon, 1982
0747: Tulip, 1982
0796: Television, 1982
1053: Jack Walls, 1983
1143: Tunnel, Naples, 1983
1203: Chest, 1983
1231: Melia Marden, 1983
1330: White Gauze, 1984
1362: Molissa Fenley, 1984
1403: Two Tulips, 1984
1473: Raymond, 1984
1489: Raymond, 1984
1548: Gregory Hines, 1985
1574: Mary Beth Hurt, 1985
1729: Thomas, 1987
[1]
Robert Mapplethorpe as cited in Janet Kardon, Robert Mapplethorpe: The Perfect Moment, (Philadelphia, PA:
Institute of Contemporary Art, University of Pennsylvania, 1988), 25.

Momentum
[2]
In the introductory text in his book Mapplethorpe (Milano: Electra, 1992), Germano Celant highlights “the
reassuring and purifying values” brought forth by Mapplethorpe’s aesthetic harmony (p.11).
[3]
Mapplethorpe as cited in Kardon, 27.
[4]
Charles A. Riley II, “Instant Apotheosis,” in Chantal Michetti-Prod’hom (Curator & Foreword),
Mapplethorpe: exposition du 9 novembre 1991 au 15 mars 1992, (Pully/Lausanne: FAE Musée d’Art
Contemporain, 1991), 11.
[5]
Ibid., 6, 11.
[6]
Kardon, 29.
[7]
Susan Sontag, “Sontag on Mapplethorpe,” Vanity Fair 48 (July 1985), 68-72.
[8]
This title of the now infamous and highly controversial Mapplethorpe retrospective curated by Janet Kardon is
of-ten associated with the artist’s photography and has come to stand as a synecdochical phrase for his aesthetic
aims.
[9]
Richard Howard, “The Mapplethorpe Effect,” in Richard Marshall, Robert Mapplethorpe, (Boston: Whitney
Museum of American Art in association with Bullfinch Press, 1988), 153.
[10]
Charles A. Riley II provides a stirring description of this 1988 self-portrait on pg. 14 of his previously cited
essay (note 4), where he highlights the parallel gazes of skull and artist, Mapplethorpe’s pale white hand tightly
grasping the cane, a wounded depression below the artist’s right eye, and his “absent” body. I add that this work
echoes the back & forth effect seen in the photo of Dennis Speight’s crouch (0496), as the inevitably of
Mapplethorpe’s passing projects forward into the skull, and then back again into his ghostly, disembodied
countenance.
Back to Home

http://www.mapplethorpe.org/online/exhibitions/Matijcio/Pictures/BigImages/1403-Tulip1984-dup.jpg
http://www.mapplethorpe.org/online/exhibitions/Matijcio/Pictures/BigImages/1403-Tulip1984-dup.jpg07/11/2004 0:19:25
http://www.mapplethorpe.org/online/exhibitions/Matijcio/Pictures/BigImages/1860-Self%20Portrait1988-dup.jpg
http://www.mapplethorpe.org/online/exhibitions/Matijcio/Pictures/BigImages/1860-Self%20Portrait1988-dup.jpg07/11/2004 0:19:28
http://www.mapplethorpe.org/online/exhibitions/Matijcio/Pictures/BigImages/1053-Jack%20Walls1983-dup.jpg
http://www.mapplethorpe.org/online/exhibitions/Matijcio/Pictures/BigImages/1053-Jack%20Walls1983-dup.jpg07/11/2004 0:19:39
http://www.mapplethorpe.org/online/exhibitions/Matijcio/Pictures/BigImages/1330-White%20Gauze1984-dup.jpg
http://www.mapplethorpe.org/online/exhibitions/Matijcio/Pictures/BigImages/1330-White%20Gauze1984-dup.jpg07/11/2004 0:19:44
http://www.mapplethorpe.org/online/exhibitions/Matijcio/Pictures/BigImages/138-Self%20Portrait1975-dup.jpg
http://www.mapplethorpe.org/online/exhibitions/Matijcio/Pictures/BigImages/138-Self%20Portrait1975-dup.jpg07/11/2004 0:19:49
http://www.mapplethorpe.org/online/exhibitions/Matijcio/Pictures/BigImages/519-Waves1980-dup.jpg
http://www.mapplethorpe.org/online/exhibitions/Matijcio/Pictures/BigImages/519-Waves1980-dup.jpg07/11/2004 0:19:56
http://www.mapplethorpe.org/online/exhibitions/Matijcio/Pictures/BigImages/1231-Melia%20Marden1983-dup.jpg
http://www.mapplethorpe.org/online/exhibitions/Matijcio/Pictures/BigImages/1231-Melia%20Marden1983-dup.jpg07/11/2004 0:20:03
http://www.mapplethorpe.org/online/exhibitions/Matijcio/Pictures/BigImages/264-Legs%20on%20Toes1976-dup.jpg
http://www.mapplethorpe.org/online/exhibitions/Matijcio/Pictures/BigImages/264-Legs%20on%20Toes1976-dup.jpg07/11/2004 0:20:07
http://www.mapplethorpe.org/online/exhibitions/Matijcio/Pictures/BigImages/605-Puerto%20Rico1981-dup.jpg
http://www.mapplethorpe.org/online/exhibitions/Matijcio/Pictures/BigImages/605-Puerto%20Rico1981-dup.jpg07/11/2004 0:20:15
http://www.mapplethorpe.org/online/exhibitions/Matijcio/Pictures/BigImages/MaryBethHurt1985.jpg
http://www.mapplethorpe.org/online/exhibitions/Matijcio/Pictures/BigImages/MaryBethHurt1985.jpg07/11/2004 0:20:25
http://www.mapplethorpe.org/online/exhibitions/Matijcio/Pictures/BigImages/1583-Self-Portrait1985-dup.jpg
http://www.mapplethorpe.org/online/exhibitions/Matijcio/Pictures/BigImages/1583-Self-Portrait1985-dup.jpg07/11/2004 0:20:30
http://www.mapplethorpe.org/online/exhibitions/Matijcio/Pictures/BigImages/1362-Molissa%20Fenley1984-dup.jpg
http://www.mapplethorpe.org/online/exhibitions/Matijcio/Pictures/BigImages/1362-Molissa%20Fenley1984-dup.jpg07/11/2004 0:20:34
http://www.mapplethorpe.org/online/exhibitions/Matijcio/Pictures/BigImages/707-Lisa%20Lyon1982-dup.jpg
http://www.mapplethorpe.org/online/exhibitions/Matijcio/Pictures/BigImages/707-Lisa%20Lyon1982-dup.jpg07/11/2004 0:20:42
http://www.mapplethorpe.org/online/exhibitions/Matijcio/Pictures/BigImages/1203-Chest1983-dup.jpg
http://www.mapplethorpe.org/online/exhibitions/Matijcio/Pictures/BigImages/1203-Chest1983-dup.jpg07/11/2004 0:20:52
http://www.mapplethorpe.org/online/exhibitions/Matijcio/Pictures/BigImages/496-Dennis%20Speight1980-dup.jpg
http://www.mapplethorpe.org/online/exhibitions/Matijcio/Pictures/BigImages/496-Dennis%20Speight1980-dup.jpg07/11/2004 0:20:59
http://www.mapplethorpe.org/online/exhibitions/Matijcio/Pictures/Thumbnails/157-AmericanFlag1977-dup.jpg
http://www.mapplethorpe.org/online/exhibitions/Matijcio/Pictures/Thumbnails/157-AmericanFlag1977-dup.jpg (1 de 2)07/11/2004 0:21:12

http://www.mapplethorpe.org/online/exhibitions/Matijcio/Pictures/Thumbnails/157-AmericanFlag1977-dup.jpg
http://www.mapplethorpe.org/online/exhibitions/Matijcio/Pictures/Thumbnails/157-AmericanFlag1977-dup.jpg (2 de 2)07/11/2004 0:21:12

http://www.mapplethorpe.org/online/exhibitions/Matijcio/Pictures/BigImages/595-Puerto%20Rico1981-dup.jpg
http://www.mapplethorpe.org/online/exhibitions/Matijcio/Pictures/BigImages/595-Puerto%20Rico1981-dup.jpg07/11/2004 0:21:19
http://www.mapplethorpe.org/online/exhibitions/Matijcio/Pictures/BigImages/1489-Raymond1984-dup.jpg
http://www.mapplethorpe.org/online/exhibitions/Matijcio/Pictures/BigImages/1489-Raymond1984-dup.jpg07/11/2004 0:21:23
http://www.mapplethorpe.org/online/exhibitions/Matijcio/Pictures/BigImages/1143-Tunnel1983-dup.jpg
http://www.mapplethorpe.org/online/exhibitions/Matijcio/Pictures/BigImages/1143-Tunnel1983-dup.jpg07/11/2004 0:21:28
http://www.mapplethorpe.org/online/exhibitions/Matijcio/Pictures/BigImages/294-Lily1979-dup.jpg
http://www.mapplethorpe.org/online/exhibitions/Matijcio/Pictures/BigImages/294-Lily1979-dup.jpg07/11/2004 0:21:32
http://www.mapplethorpe.org/online/exhibitions/Matijcio/Pictures/BigImages/558-Iggy%20Pop-dup.jpg
http://www.mapplethorpe.org/online/exhibitions/Matijcio/Pictures/BigImages/558-Iggy%20Pop-dup.jpg07/11/2004 0:21:38
http://www.mapplethorpe.org/online/exhibitions/Matijcio/Pictures/BigImages/1729-Thomas1987-dup.jpg
http://www.mapplethorpe.org/online/exhibitions/Matijcio/Pictures/BigImages/1729-Thomas1987-dup.jpg07/11/2004 0:21:42
http://www.mapplethorpe.org/online/exhibitions/Matijcio/Pictures/BigImages/440-Texas%20Gallery1980-dup.jpg
http://www.mapplethorpe.org/online/exhibitions/Matijcio/Pictures/BigImages/440-Texas%20Gallery1980-dup.jpg07/11/2004 0:21:48
http://www.mapplethorpe.org/online/exhibitions/Matijcio/Pictures/BigImages/796-Television1982-dup.jpg
http://www.mapplethorpe.org/online/exhibitions/Matijcio/Pictures/BigImages/796-Television1982-dup.jpg07/11/2004 0:21:54
http://www.mapplethorpe.org/online/exhibitions/Matijcio/Pictures/BigImages/1548-Gregory%20Hines1985-dup.jpg
http://www.mapplethorpe.org/online/exhibitions/Matijcio/Pictures/BigImages/1548-Gregory%20Hines1985-dup.jpg07/11/2004 0:22:00
http://www.mapplethorpe.org/online/exhibitions/Matijcio/Pictures/BigImages/1473-Raymond1984-dup.jpg
http://www.mapplethorpe.org/online/exhibitions/Matijcio/Pictures/BigImages/1473-Raymond1984-dup.jpg07/11/2004 0:22:05
http://www.mapplethorpe.org/online/exhibitions/Matijcio/Pictures/BigImages/747-Tulip1982-dup.jpg
http://www.mapplethorpe.org/online/exhibitions/Matijcio/Pictures/BigImages/747-Tulip1982-dup.jpg07/11/2004 0:22:15
The Robert Mapplethorpe Foundation, Inc. | Copyright
COPYRIGHT INFORMATION
OWNERSHIP
Site copyright © 2001 The Robert Mapplethorpe Foundation. All rights
reserved. The copyright in each Mapplethorpe work included herein is
owned by The Robert Mapplethorpe Foundation and is used by permission.
Except as otherwise indicated, copyright in all other material contained in
the site, and the arrangement thereof, is also owned by the Mapplethorpe
Foundation. "Mapplethorpe" and "Robert Mapplethorpe" are trademarks
and service marks of the Robert Mapplethorpe Foundation.
TERMS OF USE
PLEASE READ THE TERMS BELOW CAREFULLY. BY ACCESSING THIS
SITE, YOU AGREE TO BE BOUND BY THESE TERMS. IF YOU DO NOT
AGREE TO THEM, DO NOT ACCESS THIS SITE OR ANY PART OF IT.
The information and materials contained in this site, including text,

graphics, links or other items, are provided on an "as is" and "as available"
basis. The Robert Mapplethorpe Foundation, Inc. and the Robert
Mapplethorpe Foundation (collectively, the "Mapplethorpe Organization")
provides no warranty of any kind as to the accuracy, adequacy or
completeness of such information and materials, and expressly disclaims
liability for any errors or omissions contained therein. In no event shall the
Mapplethorpe Organization be liable for any damages of any kind arising
in connection with this site.
Hyperlinks to other internet resources provided herein are for use only at
your own risk, with the understanding that the content, accuracy, opinions
expressed, and other materials and information offered by such linked sites
are not investigated, verified, monitored, or endorsed by the Mapplethope
Organization.
All information submitted to the Mapplethorpe Organization via this site

shall be the property of the Mapplethorpe Organization, which shall be free
to use such information for any of its customary purposes.
This agreement shall be governed by the laws of the State of New York,
without regard to conflict-of-law provisions, and you agree to submit to the
personal and exclusive jurisdiction of the courts located within the county
of New York, New York.
No waiver of any default hereunder shall constitute a waiver of any prior or

subsequent default. If any provision of this agreement is held by a
competent court to be invalid, such provision shall be adjusted to the
minimum extent necessary to make it effective consistent with the parties's
intentions, and all of the other provisions shall remain in effect.
The agreement constitute the entire agreement between you and the
Mapplethorpe Organization and governs your use of this site, superseding
any and all prior agreements or understandings in this regard. However,
http://www.mapplethorpe.org/copyright.html (1 de 2)07/11/2004 0:22:18

The Robert Mapplethorpe Foundation, Inc. | Copyright
you may be subject to additional terms and conditions that may apply
when you use affiliate services, third-party content or third-party software.
Top of Page
http://www.mapplethorpe.org/copyright.html (2 de 2)07/11/2004 0:22:18

The Robert Mapplethorpe Foundation, Inc. | Mailing List
Stay informed of exhibitions, events,

news and information from The
Join Mailing List! Robert Mapplethorpe Foundation.
You may remove your name from the

list at any time. We will not share
your e-mail address with any third
party.
To be automatically informed of new

merchandise please add your name to
our store mailing list.
http://www.mapplethorpe.org/mailinglist.html07/11/2004 0:22:21
The Robert Mapplethorpe Foundation, Inc. | Store Mailing List
STORE MAILING LIST

Stay informed of new
merchandise, and special offers
from The Robert Mapplethorpe
Join Mailing List!
Store.
You may remove your name from

the list at any time. We will not
share your e-mail address with
any third party.
To be informed informed of
exhibitions, events, news and
information from The Robert
Mapplethorpe Foundation please
add your name to the foundation
mailing list.
http://www.mapplethorpe.org/store-email.html07/11/2004 0:22:26
The Robert Mapplethorpe Foundation, Inc. | Store | Shopping Info
Thank you for shopping at The

Robert Mapplethorpe Store. We are Delivery Time
committed to your complete Payment Forms
satisfaction. Shipping Charges
Our store features secure online Ordering By Phone

ordering via credit card. You may Ordering By Fax or Mail
also order by fax at 888-888-9576 or
mail. Sales Tax
Return Policy
For detailed shopping information, International Orders
please refer to the categories to the
right, or contact our store manager
via the contact us screen.
We look forward to your order!
DELIVERY TIME
Though we will begin processing your order within 24 hours from
our receipt of your order, please allow fifteen (15) business days for
delivery. Should you order a framed poster, please allow 4 weeks.
PAYMENT BY CREDIT CARD

The Robert Mapplethorpe Store accepts....Visa, Mastercard,
Discover and American Express. The charge will read under the
name of our fulfillment service: Image Exchange.
SHIPPING CHARGES
The following shipping and handling charges will be added to each
order...
Total Order Price Shipping Cost

$0.00 to $30.99 $6.00
$31.00 to $49.99 $8.00
$50.00 to $69.99 $10.00
$70.00 to $99.99 $14.00
$100.00 and up $18.00
For framed orders to Alaska or Hawaii, shipping charges will be e-
http://www.mapplethorpe.org/store-shoppinginfo.html (1 de 3)07/11/2004 0:22:31

mailed back in response to your order. Shipping is through UPS or

DHL.
International orders please read the header entitled: International

Orders.
ORDER BY PHONE
Our website is safe and secure. However, US residents may also
order by toll-free phone at 1-888-982-2200.
ORDER BY FAX or MAIL

If placing an order by fax or mail please use the website to create
your order form. Add the items you wish to purchase to the
shopping cart as if you were going to complete your order online.
Click on the Finalize Order button and the site will ask for your
name, address and billing information. Please provide the requested
information and click the Print button on your browser.
Fax the order toll-free to 888-888-9576 (international customers: 630-

982-4060) or send to...
SDMA Store- Orders
c/o Image Exchange
PO Box 1670
Santa Monica, CA 90406-1670
If paying by check or money order please make the payment out to:
Image Exchange.
SALES TAX
-Illinois customers will be charged 7.0% sales tax.
-California customers will be charged 8.0% sales tax.
-International orders may be subject to duties or tariffs. These will be
collected by the destination country's customs office and payment
will be the responsibility of the customer.
RETURNS/REPLACEMENTS
Exact exchanges will be made on damaged or defective products. If
the shipping tube or box is visibly damaged upon receipt, refuse it
and notify us via e-mail immediately or toll-free telephone at 888-982-
2200.
Claims must be made within five (5) working days of receipt.

If you are unhappy with your purchase you may return it to us,
undamaged, for a refund of the cost of the item within 30 days of
receipt.
Please insure and send the merchandise to...

Mapplethorpe Store- Returns
c/o Image Exchange
P.O. Box 1670
Santa Monica, CA 90406-1670
INTERNATIONAL ORDERS
We will attempt to honor all international orders.
The following restrictions and charges will apply...
-Images are available UNFRAMED ONLY.
-The following international shipping charge will be added to your

order in addition to regular shipping charges.
.......-Canada & Mexico: $5.00 US
.......-All Other Countries: $15.00 US
-Orders will be insured and shipped via DHL, and should arrive in 2-3
weeks.
-The customer is responsible for the payment of any import duties.
Top of Page
Copyright © 2001-2004 The Estate of Robert Mapplethorpe. All Rights Reserved.

The Robert Mapplethorpe Foundation, Inc. | Store | Contact Us
Our staff is here to answer any questions or comments on the

merchandise and policies of The Robert Mapplethorpe Store. We
respond to all email inquiries in less than 48 hours from the time
you mail us.
What is your email address:
Please share your comments below:
Send Message
Copyright © 2001-2004 The Estate of Robert Mapplethorpe. All Rights Reserved.
http://www.mapplethorpe.org/store-contact.html07/11/2004 0:22:36
The Robert Mapplethorpe Foundation, Inc. | Galleries
GALLERIES
Alison Jacques Gallery

4 Clifford Street
London W1X 1RB
United Kingdom
www.alisonjacquesgallery.com
Baldwin Gallery
209 South Galena Street
Aspen, CO 81611
USA
www.baldwingallery.com
Fay Gold Gallery

Self-Portrait, 1975 764 Miami Circle, Suite 210
Atlanta, GA 30324
USA
www.faygoldgallery.com
Xavier Hufkens Gallery

rue St-Georges 6-8
1050 Brussels
Belgium
www.xavierhufkens.com
Galerie Thaddaeus Ropac, Salzburg

Mirabellplatz 2
5020 Salzburg
Austria
www.ropac.net
Galerie Thaddaeus Ropac, Paris

7 rue Debelleyme
Paris 75003
France
www.ropac.net
Galerie Stefan Röpke

St. Apern Strasse 17 - 21
50667 Cologne
Germany
www.galerie-roepke.de
Gallery Gio Marconi

via Tadino, 15
Milan 20124
Italy
www.giomarconi.com
http://www.mapplethorpe.org/galleries.html (1 de 2)07/11/2004 0:23:01

The Robert Mapplethorpe Foundation, Inc. | Galleries
Sean Kelly Gallery

528 West 29th Street
New York, NY 10001
USA
www.skny.com
Before visiting a gallery please call to

confirm operating hours and viewing
availability.
Top of Page
http://www.mapplethorpe.org/galleries.html (2 de 2)07/11/2004 0:23:01

The Robert Mapplethorpe Foundation, Inc. | Foundation Guidelines
FOUNDATION GUIDELINES
Please note that the Foundation has made several substantial long-term funding
commitments, and decisions to fund new proposals are based on our current level of
ongoing projects.
The Robert Mapplethorpe Foundation, Inc. was founded by the

photographer Robert Mapplethorpe in May of 1988. Mr. Mapplethorpe
chose the Foundation’s Board members and was its first President. During
his lifetime he set the Guidelines for administering the organization’s funds.
Mr. Mapplethorpe died in March of 1989 and the Foundation became the
residuary beneficiary of his Estate.
The Robert Mapplethorpe Foundation will provide gifts in two major,

unrelated areas: medical research to advance the cure and treatment of
AIDS and HIV infection; and photography as an art form through assisting
museums, universities, and other institutions and by publishing quality
books and materials. The Foundation has made several important gifts in
both areas.
PHOTOGRAPHY
As a priority, the Foundation will support museums and other public
institutions by assisting in the creation or expansion of photography
departments. The Foundation’s emphasis is on permanence, which is to say,
the acquisition of photographs or the support for study and exhibition
facilities. Support is also available for important exhibitions which ideally
will be accompanied by quality catalogues, books, or other documents to
insure their place as reference resources for the future documentation of
photography as a fine art.
In many cases where an institution or a sponsor for an exhibition has begun

a project such as a catalogue, the Foundation is willing to augment the
project by providing funds to improve quality. In the appropriate
circumstance, the Foundation will also assist independent curators in
developing interesting photography exhibitions.
Although Robert Mapplethorpe’s name has been linked with extremely

important causes and subjects, the reference to those subjects within the
context of photography will not be a basis upon which gifts are made.
Rather, the quality of the photography will be the prevailing test for the
Board, which will make decisions from the expertise found within the
organization as well as with the assistance of qualified outside experts
when necessary.
The Foundation will not provide scholarships or grants to individual

photographers.
The Foundation, as the beneficiary of Robert Mapplethorpe’s Estate, owns a
http://www.mapplethorpe.org/foundation-guidelines.html (1 de 2)07/11/2004 0:23:12

The Robert Mapplethorpe Foundation, Inc. | Foundation Guidelines
quantity of works by the artist and will make gifts of works as well as gifts
of money to organizations which qualify for these gifts.
AIDS RESEARCH
The Foundation provides funding for scientific research for studies being
conducted for the treatment or cure of AIDS and HIV related infections. The
Foundation does not provide money for social services or health care
facilities and/or projects which are not specifically linked to specific
research agenda.
The Foundation’s Board meets regularly to consider various business

matters and it reviews applications at its meetings. Nevertheless, the
Foundation is not an organization capable of providing emergency
assistance, nor is it possible for the Foundation to meet the deadline
requirements of applicants. Therefore applicants should be prepared to wait
several weeks or months for decisions to be made, due to the fact that the
Board takes all requests very seriously and attempts to make meaningful
and informed decisions.
No formal applications forms are currently being utilized. If your project

falls within the context of the Foundation’s Guidelines, please condense
your description of any project to only a few pages. If the Board finds the
project potentially interesting, you will be contacted and very likely asked
for additional information concerning, for example, physical facilities,
(where applicable), other financial resources obtained or being sought, full
descriptions and qualifications of personnel involved including other
similar or dissimilar projects for which they were responsible, and complete
budget information.
Top of Page
http://www.mapplethorpe.org/foundation-guidelines.html (2 de 2)07/11/2004 0:23:12

Bulls Eye, 1970
http://www.mapplethorpe.org/unique2.html07/11/2004 0:24:10
Patti Smith, 1974
Heart and Dagger, 1982
Charles and Jim, 1974
The Slave, 1974
Cowboy, 1970
Chest, 1987
Leatherman II, 1970
Self Portrait, 1974
Self Portrait, 1980
http://www.mapplethorpe.org/selfportraits2.html07/11/2004 0:25:46
Self Portrait, 1980
Self Portrait, 1982
Self Portrait, 1983
Self Portrait, 1983
Self Portrait, 1985
Self Portrait, 1986
Self Portrait, 1988
Self Portrait, 1988
Mercury, 1987
http://www.mapplethorpe.org/statuary2.html07/11/2004 0:27:33
Italian Devil, 1988
Wrestler, 1989
Hermes, 1988
Skull Walking Cane, 1988
Black Bust, 1988
Christ, 1988
Apollo, 1988
Cross, 1984
Andy Warhol, 1986
http://www.mapplethorpe.org/portraits2.html07/11/2004 0:30:32
Isabella Rosselllini, 1988
Lucy Ferry, 1986
Gregory Hines, 1985
Iggy Pop, 1981
Smutty, 1980
Patti Smith, 1975
Debbie Harry, 1978
Louise Bourgeois, 1982
Ajitto, 1981
http://www.mapplethorpe.org/malenudes2.html07/11/2004 0:33:24
Christopher Holly, 1981
Untitled, 1981
Ken Moody, 1983
Ken Moody, 1983
Thomas, 1987
Livingston, 1988
Thomas, 1986
Derrick Cross, 1985
Lisa Lyon, 1981
http://www.mapplethorpe.org/femalenudes2.html07/11/2004 0:38:35
Lisa Lyon, 1982
Italian Vogue, 1984
Lydia Cheng, 1985
Lydia Cheng, 1985
Lisa Marie, 1987
Lisa Marie, 1987
Sonia and Tracey, 1984
Sonia Resika, 1988
Orchids, 1985
http://www.mapplethorpe.org/flowers2.html07/11/2004 0:43:02
Calla Lilly, 1988
Poppy, 1988
Anthurium, 1988
Calla Lily, 1987
Tiger Lily, 1983
Parrot Tulips, 1988
Calla Lilies, 1988
Double Jack-in-the-Pulpit, 1988

Fotografo Robert Mapplethorpe

Uploaded by

Document Information

Original Description:

Copyright

Available Formats

Share this document

Share or Embed Document

Sharing Options

Did you find this document useful?

Is this content inappropriate?

Copyright:

Available Formats

Fotografo Robert Mapplethorpe

Uploaded by

Copyright:

Available Formats

The Robert Mapplethorpe Foundation, Inc.

© Robert Mapplethorpe Foundation. All Rights Reserved.

Mapplethorpe took his first

http://www.mapplethorpe.org/biography.html (1 de 2)07/11/2004 0:15:27

photographs of a wide circle of friends

During the early 1980s, Mapplethorpe’s

Mapplethorpe produced a consistent

Copyright © The Robert Mapplethorpe Foundation. All Rights Reserved.

http://www.mapplethorpe.org/biography.html (2 de 2)07/11/2004 0:15:27

Copyright © The Robert Mapplethorpe Foundation. All Rights Reserved.

Copyright © The Robert Mapplethorpe Foundation. All Rights Reserved.

Patti Smith, 1976

Copyright © The Robert Mapplethorpe Foundation. All Rights Reserved.

Ken Moody and Robert Sherman, 1984

Copyright © The Robert Mapplethorpe Foundation. All Rights Reserved.

Peter Gabriel, 1986

Copyright © The Robert Mapplethorpe Foundation. All Rights Reserved.

Female Torso, 1978

Copyright © The Robert Mapplethorpe Foundation. All Rights Reserved.

Self Portrait, 1975

Copyright © The Robert Mapplethorpe Foundation. All Rights Reserved.

Self Portrait, 1973

Copyright © The Robert Mapplethorpe Foundation. All Rights Reserved.

Sadly, as Mapplethorpe's work traveled the country in

In late February 1989, despite his rapidly deteriorating condition, he made a

http://www.mapplethorpe.org/foundation.html (1 de 3)07/11/2004 0:15:56

Mapplethorpe is considered by many art scholars to be among the most important

In keeping with Mapplethorpe's wishes, The Robert Mapplethorpe Foundation has

In addition to its charitable work, the Foundation works to maintain Mapplethorpe's

http://www.mapplethorpe.org/foundation.html (2 de 3)07/11/2004 0:15:56

Copyright © The Robert Mapplethorpe Foundation. All Rights Reserved.

http://www.mapplethorpe.org/foundation.html (3 de 3)07/11/2004 0:15:56

To be automatically informed of new exhibitions please add your name to our

Archeology of Elegance 1980-2000: Twenty Years of Fashion Photography

Musée du Jeu de Paume, Paris, France, January 17 - March 16, 2003

Kyouka World Flowers

October 15 - December 4, 2004

Robert Mapplethorpe: Self Portraits

October 9 - Nov. 15, 2004

Spirit of Creativity at the Seaport: Past and Present

http://www.mapplethorpe.org/exhibitions.html (1 de 3)07/11/2004 0:15:58

Extended through July 31, 2004

Likeness: Portraits of Artists by other Artists

Extended through May 31, 2005

Rose c’est la vie

July 1, 2004 – Oct 20, 2004

Flowers Observed, Flowers Transformed

May 15 – September 5, 2004

Robert Mapplethorpe and the Classical Tradition: Photographs and

Deutsche Guggenheim Museum, Berlin, Germany

The State Hermitage Museum, St. Petersburg, Russia

Moscow House of Photography, Moscow, Russia TBC

The Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, New York, New York TBC

Instant Instincts/Instinti Instantanei-Arte in Polaroid, in the works of

http://www.mapplethorpe.org/exhibitions.html (2 de 3)07/11/2004 0:15:58

The World of Robert Mapplethorpe

Merano arte edificio Cassa di Risparmio

The Flower as Image: From Monet to Jeff Koons

Louisiana Museum of Modern Art

The Fondation Beyeler

Pandemic: Imaging AIDS

The Contemporary Museum of Art / FAD Convent dels Angels

The Apartheid Museum