Robert Mapplethorpe - Photographs London Thursday, November 5, 2015 | Phillips

Photographs

London Auction 6 November 2015 2pm

  • Provenance

    Robert Miller Gallery, New York
    Hamiltons Gallery, London

  • Literature

    Robert Mapplethorpe: The Perfect Moment, Institute of Contemporary Art, University of Pennsylvania, 1989, p. 90

  • Catalogue Essay

    ‘The flowers captured in photographs by Mapplethorpe give of a fragrance of sin. They are suspect, in being more beautiful than real flowers’
    Noriko Fuku

  • 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

92

Robert Mapplethorpe

Tulips

1983
Gelatin silver print.
38.6 x 38.6 cm (15 1/4 x 15 1/4 in.)
Signed, dated and numbered 2/10 in ink in the margin; signed, dated in ink and copyright credit reproduction limitation stamp on the reverse of the flush-mount.

Estimate
£18,000 - 22,000 

Sold for £25,000

Contact Specialist
Lou Proud
Head of Photographs
London
+ 44 207 318 4018

Photographs

London Auction 6 November 2015 2pm