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

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  • Literature

    Mapplethorpe: Pistils, New York: Random House, 1996, pl. 156
    R. Mapplethorpe, Flora: The Complete Flowers, London: Phaidon, 2016, p. 263

  • 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

49

Flowers (Green Amarylis)

1987
Photogravure.
48.8 x 49.2 cm (19 1/4 x 19 3/8 in.)
Signed, dated and annotated 'PP' in pencil in the margin. One from an edition of 25 + 5 APs.

Estimate
£5,000 - 7,000 

Sold for £6,250

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