Robert Mapplethorpe - Photographs London Friday, September 25, 2020 | Phillips

Photographs

London Auction 25 September 2020

  • Provenance

    Hamiltons Gallery, London

  • Literature

    R. Mapplethorpe & A. C. Danto, Mapplethorpe, London: Jonathan Cape, 1992, pp. 290, 339
    P. Martineau & B. Salvesen, Robert Mapplethorpe: The Photographs, Los Angeles: Getty, 2016, p. 227

  • 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

THE ROBERT TIBBLES COLLECTION: YOUNG BRITISH ARTISTS & MORE

38

Robert Mapplethorpe

Hermes

1988
Platinum print.
48.5 x 48 cm (19 1/8 x 18 7/8 in.)
Signed, titled, numbered 3/5 and copyright credit by Michael Ward Stout, Executor of the Mapplethorpe Estate, in pencil on the verso.

Estimate
£40,000 - 60,000 

Sold for £40,000

Contact Specialist

 

Rachel Peart
Head of Sale, Specialist


Yuka Yamaji
Head of Photographs, Europe


General Enquiries
+44 20 7318 4092

Photographs

London Auction 25 September 2020