Robert Miller Gallery, New York
Private Collection, Midwest
J. Kardon, Robert Mapplethorpe: The Perfect Moment, Philadelphia: Institute of Contemporary Art, 1991, back cover
G. Celant, Mapplethorpe: The Nymph Photography, Milan: Skira, 2014, pl. 107
Robert Mapplethorpe and The Classical Tradition, New York: Guggenheim Museum, 2005, pl. 117
Mapplethorpe, New York: Random House, 1992, p. 305
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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