Robert Mapplethorpe - Photographs New York Tuesday, October 3, 2017 | Phillips
  • Provenance

    Graphicstudio, Tampa

  • Literature

    Kardon, Robert Mapplethorpe: The Perfect Moment, p. 89
    Martineau and Salvesen, Robert Mapplethorpe: The Photographs, pl. 141
    Random House, Mapplethorpe, pl. 236
    Random House, Mapplethorpe: Pistils, p. 79
    Schirmer/Mosel, Robert Mapplethorpe: Ten by Ten, pl. 25
    teNeues, Mapplethorpe: The Complete Flowers, pl. 138
    teNeues, Robert Mapplethorpe: Perfection in Form, cat. 3

  • 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

309

Irises

1986
Photogravure on silk collé.
34 x 32 in. (86.4 x 81.3 cm)
Signed, dated '1987' and numbered 10/27 by the artist in pencil in the margin.

Estimate
$20,000 - 30,000 

Sold for $43,750

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Photographs

New York 3 October 2017