Robert Mapplethorpe - Photographs New York Friday, April 5, 2024 | Phillips

Photographs

New York Auction 5 April 2024

  • Provenance

    Sundaram Tagore Gallery, New York

  • Literature

    St. Martin's Press, Lady: Lisa Lyon, p. 83

  • 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

221

Robert Mapplethorpe

Lisa Lyon

1980
Gelatin silver print.
13 5/8 x 13 3/4 in. (34.6 x 34.9 cm)
Signed, dated, and numbered 4/15 in ink in the margin; signed, dated, numbered in ink, and copyright credit reproduction limitation stamp on the reverse of the flush-mount.

Estimate
$7,000 - 9,000 

Sold for $8,890

Contact Specialist

Sarah Krueger
Head of Department, Photographs
skrueger@phillips.com
 

Vanessa Hallett
Worldwide Head of Photographs and Chairwoman, Americas
vhallett@phillips.com

Photographs

New York Auction 5 April 2024