Polaroids. This exhibition traces Mapplethorpe's use of instant photography from 1970 to 1975, bringing toghever one hundred works. Included are self-portraits, figure studies, still lifes, and portraits of lovers and friends including Patti Smith, Sam Wagstaff, and Marianne Faithfull. Many of these small, intimate photographs convey tenderness and vulnerability. Others depict a toughness and immediacy that would give way in later years to more classical form.
A little-known body of early work by Robert Mapplethorpe
(1946-89) is presented in Polaroids: Mapplethorpe, opening on May 3, 2008, at the
Whitney Museum of American Art. Curated by Sylvia Wolf, recently named Director of the
Henry Art Gallery, Seattle, in collaboration with the Robert Mapplethorpe Foundation, the
exhibition, features approximately one hundred works – many never exhibited before –
including self-portraits, figure studies, still lifes, and portraits of Mapplethorpe’s lovers and
friends such as Patti Smith, Sam Wagstaff, and Marianne Faithfull. It remains on view in the
Sondra Gilman Gallery through September 7.
Best-known for the highly stylized and neoclassically inspired works he made between the
late 1970s and his death in 1989, Mapplethorpe’s mature work was in fact preceded by an
important but largely unknown body of over 1,500 photographs made with Polaroid
cameras between 1970 and 1975, when Mapplethorpe was in his twenties. Unlike the
carefully controlled images that Mapplethorpe would later come to stage in the studio, the
artist’s Polaroids reveal remarkable spontaneity and creativity. Many of these small,
intimate photographs convey tenderness and vulnerability, while others depict a toughness
and immediacy that would give way in later years to more classical form. In these images,
in the words of curator Sylvia Wolf, we can witness “Mapplethorpe learning to see
photographically.”
As Mapplethorpe explained in 1988, photography “was the perfect medium, or so it
seemed, for the ‘70s and ‘80s, when everything was fast. If I were to make something that
took two weeks to do, I’d lose my enthusiasm. It would become an act of labor and the love
would be gone.” Polaroid cameras, in particular, provided rapid results, allowing
Mapplethorpe to see his photographs as he was making them, which in turn gave free access to feeling and thinking. This visual responsiveness to the moment is one of the
distinguishing characteristics of this body of work. The results are disarming pictures that
give early evidence of the artist’s avid curiosity about light, composition, and design.
Polaroids: Mapplethorpe allows an examination of an important aspect of Mapplethorpe’s
career, and provides an invaluable glimpse into the artist’s creative development.
A fully illustrated publication by Sylvia Wolf, Polaroids: Mapplethorpe, published by Prestel,
places Mapplethorpe’s early work in the context of his life-long artistic production. The
book contains 183 plates (all Polaroids) and 43 figure illustrations, including works by a
range of other artists, from Mantegna to Schiele, which place Mapplethorpe’s Polaroids in
an art historical context.
ABOUT THE WHITNEY MUSEUM
The Whitney Museum of American Art is the leading advocate of 20th- and 21st-century
American art. Founded in 1930, the Museum is regarded as the preeminent collection of
American art and includes major works and materials from the estate of Edward Hopper, the
largest public collection of works by Alexander Calder, Louise Nevelson, and Lucas Samaras,
as well as significant works by Jasper Johns, Donald Judd, Agnes Martin, Bruce Nauman,
Georgia O'Keeffe, Claes Oldenburg, Kiki Smith, and Andy Warhol, among other artists. With
its history of exhibiting the most promising and influential American artists and provoking
intense critical and public debate, the Whitney's signature show, the Biennial, has become
the most important survey of the state of contemporary art in America today.
Image: Robert Mapplethorpe, Untitled (self-portrait),1972
Opening on May 3, 2008
The Whitney Museum is located at 945 Madison Avenue, New York City.
Museum hours are: Wednesday, Thursday,
Saturday, and Sunday from 11 a.m. to 6 p.m., Friday from 1 p.m. to 9 p.m., closed Monday and Tuesday.
Admission is
$15 for adults; free for members, children (ages 11 and under), and New York City public high school students. Senior
citizens (62 and over) and students with valid ID: $10. There is a $6 admission fee for a pass to the Kaufman Astoria
Studios Film & Video Gallery only. Admission is pay-what-you-wish on Fridays, 6-9 pm.