Robert Mapplethorpe - Photographs New York Monday, April 9, 2018 | Phillips

Photographs

New York Auction 9 April 2018

  • Provenance

    Christie’s, New York, 31 October 1988, lot 293
    Private Collection, New York

  • Literature

    Holborn, Mapplethorpe, p. 145
    St. Martin's Press, Lady: Lisa Lyon, p. 38

  • 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."

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160

Robert Mapplethorpe

Lisa Lyon

1982
Gelatin silver print.
15 1/8 x 15 1/2 in. (38.4 x 39.4 cm)
Signed, dated and numbered 4/10 by the artist in ink in the margin; signed by the artist in ink, titled, dated, numbered 4/10 in an unidentified hand in ink and copyright credit reproduction limitation stamp on the reverse of the flush-mount.

Estimate
$12,000 - 18,000 

Sold for $17,500

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Photographs

New York Auction 9 April 2018