Robert Mapplethorpe - Photographs London Wednesday, November 2, 2016 | Phillips

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  • Provenance

    Christie's, New York, 18 October 2006, lot 196

  • Literature

    M. Holborn, D. Levas, eds., Mapplethorpe Flora: The Complete Flowers, Phaidon, 2016, p. 363

  • 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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Collection of Georges Bermann

19

Orchids

1989
Dye transfer print.
56.5 x 56.5 cm (22 1/4 x 22 1/4 in.)
Signed, dated by Michael Ward Stout, Executor, titled, dated, numbered 2/5 in an unidentified hand, all in ink, Estate copyright credit reproduction limitation and signature stamp on the reverse of the flush-mount.

Estimate
£15,000 - 20,000 

Sold for £23,750

Contact Specialist
Genevieve Janvrin
Head of Photographs, Europe
+44 20 7318 4092

Photographs

London Auction 3 November 2016