Robert Mapplethorpe
dal 28/7/2006 al 4/11/2006
Segnalato da
28/7/2006
Robert Mapplethorpe
Scottish National Gallery of Modern Art, Edinburgh
Statuesque nudes, portraits of artists and celebrities, depictions of New York's S&M underground and delicate flower photographs - a rare retrospective from a provocative perfectionist. The show comprises nearly 80 photographs. The works highlight the range of the artist's technique and subject matter; the largest group being portraits including Andy Warhol, Patti Smith, Truman Capote, Louise Bourgeois... Also included are a number of self-portraits.
Statuesque nudes, portraits of artists and celebrities, depictions of New York's S&M underground and delicate flower photographs - a rare retrospective from the provocative perfectionist, Robert Mapplethorpe (1946-1989).
The show comprises nearly 80 photographs, some of which have never been exhibited before. The works highlight the range of the artist's technique and subject matter; the largest group being portraits including Andy Warhol, Patti Smith, Truman Capote, Louise Bourgeois, David Hockney, Philip Glass, Grace Jones, Iggy Pop, Arnold Schwarzenegger and Marianne Faithfull.
Also included are a number of extraordinary self-portraits which chart the artist's life and final illness; works from his infamous X Portfolio series which chronicled New York's S&M underground; and exquisite studies of leaves and flowers.
Robert Mapplethorpe (1946-1989) became famous, not to say notorious, in the 1970s and 1980s for his photographs of male and female nudes and for his depictions of gay, sado-masochistic sex. His exploration of hitherto hidden areas of life was very much part of the sexual liberation movements of that time. Now, over 15 years after his death, it is possible to look more dispassionately at the full range of Mapplethorpe's photographs and see that other subjects, flowers, and in particular, portraits occupy central roles in his practice. The world that he represented in his photographs was focused on New York at a time of tremendous social and artistic ferment. He took iconic photographs of many of the artists, writers, pop and film stars and socialites of the day and even his flowers he termed ‘New York flowers', because of their showy, spiky and sexy shapes.
Mapplethorpe was a perfectionist, who cared for traditional values of tone and composition. He chose on the whole to photograph beautiful people, in a light which brought out their best features and emphasised balance and symmetry. Increasingly as the AIDS epidemic took its toll particularly on the gay community Mapplethorpe drew attention in his work to the links between beauty, eros and death, drawing on some of the traditional memento mori (‘remember you must die') symbols of art history. But, ultimately, it was life that interested Mapplethorpe and, even when he was staring death (from AIDS) in the face, he was resolute in his defiance.
This is the first exhibition devoted to Robert Mapplethorpe's work to be held in Scotland and is the first retrospective to be held in Britain for a decade.
Media enquiries:
Patricia Convery, Head of Press, pconvery@nationalgalleries.org or +44 131 624 6325
Image: Patti Smith, 1979 (c) Robert Mapplethorpe Foundation.
Sponsored by the National Galleries of Scotland Friends Membership
Scottish National Gallery of Modern Art
Royal Scottish Academy Building, Edinburgh
Opening Hours
Open daily, 10am-5pm.
Extended hours during the Edinburgh Festival: 10am-6pm daily.
Last entry to the show is 30mins before closing time.
Admission: £6 (£4)
For more information on the Edinburgh Art Festival: http://www.edinburghartfestival.com