Robert Mapplethorpe - Photographs London Friday, October 25, 2019 | Phillips

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  • Provenance

    Robert Miller Gallery, New York
    Private Collection, Midwest

  • Literature

    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

  • 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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Δ47

Skull

1988
Gelatin silver print.
48.6 x 48.9 cm (19 1/8 x 19 1/4 in.)
Signed, dated by Michael Ward Stout, Executor, in ink and estate copyright credit reproduction limitation stamp on the reverse of the flush-mount. Number 5 from an edition of 10.

Estimate
£15,000 - 20,000 

Sold for £18,750

Contact Specialist
Genevieve Janvrin
Co-Head of Photographs, Europe
Yuka Yamaji
Co-Head of Photographs, Europe

General Enquiries
+44 20 7318 4092

Photographs

London Auction 25 October 2019