Robert Mapplethorpe - Under the Influence New York Thursday, September 20, 2012 | Phillips

Create your first list.

Select an existing list or create a new list to share and manage lots you follow.

  • Provenance

    Private collection, Massachusetts

  • Artist Biography

    Robert Mapplethorpe

    American • 1946 - 1989

    After studying drawing, painting and sculpture at the Pratt Institute in the 1960s, Robert Mapplethorpe began experimenting with photography while living in the notorious Chelsea Hotel with Patti Smith. Beginning with Polaroids, he soon moved on to a Hasselblad medium-format camera, which he used to explore aspects of life often only seen behind closed doors.

    By the 1980s Mapplethorpe's focus was predominantly in the studio, shooting portraits, flowers and nudes. His depiction of the human form in formal compositions reflects his love of classical sculpture and his groundbreaking marriage of those aesthetics with often challenging subject matter. Mapplethorpe's style is present regardless of subject matter — from erotic nudes to self-portraits and flowers — as he ceaselessly strove for what he called "perfection of form."

    View More Works

120

Cock

1986
gelatin silver print
image: 19 1/8 x 19 1/8 in. (48.6 x 48.6 cm); sheet: 23 7/8 x 19 7/8 in. (60.6 x 50.5 cm)
Signed, numbered, and dated "2/10 Robert Mapplethorpe '86" lower edge. This work is number two from an edition of ten.

Estimate
$7,000 - 9,000 

Sold for $22,500

Under the Influence

20 September 2012
New York