Robert Mapplethorpe

Critically praised for his finely modeled and classically composed photographs, Robert Mapplethorpe remains intensely controversial and enormously popular. This book brings together almost three hundred images from the Robert Mapplethorpe Foundation's archive and private collections, to provide a critical view of Mapplethorpe's formative years as an artist. These works reveal the themes that would inspire Mapplethorpe throughout his career. Included is a selection of his color Polaroids and objects incorporating his early "instant" photography. Some images convey a disarming tenderness and vulnerability, others a toughness and immediacy that would give way in later years to more classical form. The author traces the development of Mapplethorpe's use of instant photography during a period of five years, from 1970 to 1975, when the artist worked mainly in this medium. The images include self-portraits, figure studies, still lifes, portraits of lovers and friends such as Patti Smith, Sam Wagstaff and Marianne Faithful and observations of everyday objects. Marked by a spontaneity and creative curiosity, these fragile images offer an illuminating contrast to the glossy perfection of the work for which Mapplethorpe is best known, allowing us a more personal glimpse of his artistry.

Critically praised for his finely modeled and classically composed photographs, Robert Mapplethorpe remains intensely controversial and enormously popular. This book brings together almost three hundred images from the Robert Mapplethorpe Foundation's archive and private collections, to provide a critical view of Mapplethorpe's formative years as an artist. These works reveal the themes that would inspire Mapplethorpe throughout his career. Included is a selection of his color Polaroids and objects incorporating his early "instant" photography. Some images convey a disarming tenderness and vulnerability, others a toughness and immediacy that would give way in later years to more classical form. The author traces the development of Mapplethorpe's use of instant photography during a period of five years, from 1970 to 1975, when the artist worked mainly in this medium. The images include self-portraits, figure studies, still lifes, portraits of lovers and friends such as Patti Smith, Sam Wagstaff and Marianne Faithful and observations of everyday objects. Marked by a spontaneity and creative curiosity, these fragile images offer an illuminating contrast to the glossy perfection of the work for which Mapplethorpe is best known, allowing us a more personal glimpse of his artistry.

Tracing echoes of antiquity in Mapplethorpe's erotic, dramatic and exquisitely balanced black-and-white compositions American photographer Robert Mapplethorpe (1946-89) was an artist with a profound knowledge of art history, a sophisticated connoisseur who constantly sought to hold a dialogue with the past that would allow him to create innovative and contemporary images. His vision was influenced by Classicism, an artistic canon that Mapplethorpe not only studied but also copied, renewed and interpreted, translating into the medium of photography the principles of harmony, proportion and formal perfection that characterize classical sculpture. This volume holds a direct dialogue between the most celebrated of Mapplethorpe's photographs of the perfect and eternal forms of ancient sculpture, and images whose subjects are the fleeting and sensual ones of male and female models that echo the poses or angles of the former, making a visual comparison between sculptural and photographic representation of the human body. It is from such a perspective that this up-to-date monograph sets out to retrace the various stages of Mapplethorpe's career and artistic research, examining crucial phases in his production, from his early experiments with collage to his last works, passing through his iconic photographs of nudes, portraits and floral compositions.

Tracing echoes of antiquity in Mapplethorpe's erotic, dramatic and exquisitely balanced black-and-white compositions American photographer Robert Mapplethorpe (1946-89) was an artist with a profound knowledge of art history, a sophisticated connoisseur who constantly sought to hold a dialogue with the past that would allow him to create innovative and contemporary images. His vision was influenced by Classicism, an artistic canon that Mapplethorpe not only studied but also copied, renewed and interpreted, translating into the medium of photography the principles of harmony, proportion and formal perfection that characterize classical sculpture. This volume holds a direct dialogue between the most celebrated of Mapplethorpe's photographs of the perfect and eternal forms of ancient sculpture, and images whose subjects are the fleeting and sensual ones of male and female models that echo the poses or angles of the former, making a visual comparison between sculptural and photographic representation of the human body. It is from such a perspective that this up-to-date monograph sets out to retrace the various stages of Mapplethorpe's career and artistic research, examining crucial phases in his production, from his early experiments with collage to his last works, passing through his iconic photographs of nudes, portraits and floral compositions.

A revised and updated edition of the most comprehensive survey published of Mapplethorpe's photography Robert Mapplethorpe was one of the twentieth century's most important and influential artists, known for his groundbreaking and provocative work. He studied painting, drawing, and sculpture in Brooklyn in the 1960s and started taking photographs when he acquired a Polaroid camera in 1970. This comprehensive monograph is an overview of the artist's black-and-white photography of floral still lifes, nudes, selfportraits, and portraits, among other subjects—and also includes a selection of his color images.

A revised and updated edition of the most comprehensive survey published of Mapplethorpe's photography Robert Mapplethorpe was one of the twentieth century's most important and influential artists, known for his groundbreaking and provocative work. He studied painting, drawing, and sculpture in Brooklyn in the 1960s and started taking photographs when he acquired a Polaroid camera in 1970. This comprehensive monograph is an overview of the artist's black-and-white photography of floral still lifes, nudes, selfportraits, and portraits, among other subjects—and also includes a selection of his color images.