Robert Mapplethorpe (1946 - 1989)

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Playing With the Edge : The Photographic Achievement of Robert Mapplethorpe by Arthur Coleman Danto  

"Fortunately, the art critic and philosopher Arthur C. Danto, by collecting in one book three major essays on Mapplethorpe he wrote between 1988 and now, returns the reader to the true themes of Mapplethorpe's photography. Mr. Danto is particularly insightful about the sexuality Mapplethorpe represents, the artist's unique revelation of the confusing elegance he found in the practice of sadomasochism. . . . Mr. Danto gives Mapplethorpe's work its due by using it to involve the reader in tightly constructed, formal, articulate and open discussion of sexuality and photography." -- Maud Lavin, New York Times Book Review

Robert Mapplethorpe Black Book by Robert Mapplethorpe

Mapplethorpe presents an astonishing photographic study of black men today. In their diversity, impact, erotic appeal and deep humanity, these photographs constitute a stunning celebration of the contemporary black male. Black-and-white photos throughout.

"Mapplethorpe, with his great photographic potential produced a riveting book that dignifies the male, black body to the next zenith. He was able to capture the very essence of what it is to be a male and to be viewed as "God's" art or creation and not a male "pig." This book demonstrates the power of the camera when the beholder knows what he/she is doing. The images in this book do not appall me, offend me nor do they disgust me. I enjoyed reading and flipping through this book as a legitimate art reviewer and as a academic scholar." -- Anonymous Review

Mapplethorpe : A Biography by Patricia Morrisroe

How did a middle-class Catholic boy from Queens become one of the world's most controversial artists? Morrisroe, who met Mapplethorpe at the pinnacle of his fame and the beginning of his rapid descent toward death from AIDS, provides as cogent an explanation as possible in an excellent biography notable for its dramatic structure and candor. Morrisroe tracks Mapplethorpe's brief and excessive life from his awkward boyhood, through his miasmic college and ROTC years, to his abrupt sexual and artistic liberation when he discovered drugs and gay S & M bars, habits he overindulged in right up to his death at age 43. Mapplethorpe's story is tied inextricably to the life story of his closest friend, sometime lover, and most important muse, Patti Smith, who Morrisroe also portrays with skill and ardor. Morrisroe does a superb job of conjuring the New York art and club scene during the 1970s and 1980s and of tracing the evolution of Mapplethorpe's troubling art. A photographer perversely proud of his lack of technical knowledge, Mapplethorpe had a brilliant but cold eye and ruthlessly objectified his sex partners and models. The truth is, Mapplethorpe was fixated on transgression, sadism, evil, and death. Incapable of love, he used and abused people, including himself. But these harsh truths don't detract from his impact as an artist or diminish the raw power of his images. There is a dark side to every aspect of life, even beauty. Don{¤}a Matrixx

Robert Mapplethorpe's Extraordinary Vision

By Deborah A. Levinson

This is a review of "The Perfect Moment" exhibition for the Washington Project for the Arts at the Institute for Contemporary Art, 1989.

Excerpt:

Controversy over publicly funded art will neither begin nor end with Mapplethorpe's homoerotic photographs. In mid-1989, there was an uproar over the work of another photographer, Andres Serrano, whose "Piss Christ" -- a murky, moody photograph of the crucified Christ submerged in the artist's urine -- had been partially funded by a $15,000 grant from the National Endowment for the Arts. Suddenly the search for other publicly funded, "inappropriate" art was on, and Robert Mapplethorpe's work became the next target.

Mapplethorpe's earliest efforts were his most controversial. He first achieved notoriety for his work celebrating and documenting New York's gay community in the late 1970s. Often the photographs explicitly depicted sexual organs and bondage equipment. Yet Mapplethorpe's art always revealed the humanity and emotions of his subjects behind their leather, spikes, and chains. These graphic depictions of a subsection of the homosexual community later aroused the ire of the Rev. Donald Wildmon's conservative American Family Association, and subsequently that of Helms.

Helms has objected most forcefully to those photographs that he and others regard as pornographic. The senator has a standard packet of four Mapplethorpe photos he shows to reporters questioning him about his stance on "obscene" art. These include "Man in Polyester Suit," depicting the polyester-clad torso of a black man, his uncircumcised penis dangling from his fly, and "Rosie," a two- or three-year-old child caught, shocked, on film -- her crotch exposed. Helms claims the latter is a clear example of child pornography. Both photographs are part of The Perfect Moment collection...

Mapplethorpe's Work Viewable on the Internet

Robert Mapplethorpe [American Photographer, 1946-1989] Links to the artist's works in art museum sites and image archives worldwide.

Robert Mapplethorpe

Encarta

Excerpt:

American photographer, whose work is critically acclaimed despite accusations of pornographic content in some of his photographs. He was born in Queens, New York, and educated at the Pratt Institute of Art. After studying painting, drawing, and sculpture, he turned to photography. His first works in this field were collages made of photos cut from magazines and spray-painted. He then took his own photos, using a Polaroid camera. He had his first one-man show in 1976, then switched to a large-format press camera for his next. In 1977 he exhibited pictures of homosexual men in sexual acts or with sadomasochistic paraphernalia, set against conventional backdrops and in classical composition...

Names Index:
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