ROBERT MAPPLETHORPE RESOURCE PACK FOR TEACHERS AND EDUCATORS ABOUT THIS RESOURCE

Robert Mapplethorpe is widely regarded as one of the world’s most important artists of the late twentieth century. The group of photographs in ARTIST ROOMS is one of the best collections in the world. It includes studies of fl owers, portraits of many of the most infl uential artists, writers and musicians of the period, including , Truman Capote and , and iconic self-portraits. Other large collections are held in the U.S.A. by the Guggenheim Museum, the Getty Museum and in partnership with the Los Angeles County Museum of Art and the Hessel Museum collection at Bard College. There is also a signifi cant private collection in Norway.

This resource is designed to aid teachers and educators using the ARTIST ROOMS Robert Mapplethorpe collection with groups of young people engaged in related learning activities and projects. The resource focuses on specifi c works and themes and suggests areas of discussion, activities and links to other works on the online ARTIST ROOMS collection pages.

For schools, the work of Robert Mapplethorpe presents a good opportunity to explore cross-curricula learning. The themes in Mapplethorpe’s work can be linked to curricula areas such as Expressive Arts, Health and Wellbeing, Religious and Moral Education, Social Studies, Citizenship and Mathematics.

A glossary at the back of the resource provides further information on key words, terms and people associated with Mapplethorpe and related themes.

Cover image: Robert Mapplethorpe Ken Moody 1983 © Robert Mapplethorpe Foundation. Used by permission. CONTENTS

What is ARTIST ROOMS? 03

Robert Mapplethorpe 04

1. ROBERT MAPPLETHORPE AND PATTI SMITH: ARTIST AND MUSE 05

2. CHILDREN 07

3. PORTRAITS: ARTISTS AND CELEBRITIES 10

4. THE BODY AND SCULPTURE 12

5. SELF PORTRAITURE: IDENTITY AND MORTALITY 14

6. BALANCE AND UNITY 17

7. CENSORSHIP AND FREEDOM OF EXPRESSION 18

Summary 19

Glossary 20

Find Out More 25

WHAT IS ARTIST ROOMS?

ARTIST ROOMS is a collection of international contemporary art, which has been created through one of the largest and most imaginative gifts of art ever made to museums in Britain. The gift was made by Anthony d’Offay, with the assistance of the National Heritage Memorial Fund, the Art Fund and the Scottish and British Governments in 2008.

ARTIST ROOMS is jointly owned and managed by Tate and National Galleries of Scotland on behalf of the nation and comprises over 1100 artworks. The collection takes the form of major bodies of work by artists including Diane Arbus, Joseph Beuys, Vija Celmins, and Damien Hirst. The guiding concept of ARTIST ROOMS is to show the work of individual artists in dedicated, monographic displays.

Anthony d’Offay’s vision for ARTIST ROOMS is that great works of art should be available to audiences anywhere in the country, and especially for young people. This idea developed from Anthony’s own discovery of art as a child in Leicester and as a student at Edinburgh University, experiences which shaped his life. Anthony is Ex-Offi cio Curator of ARTISTS ROOMS.

The collection is available to regional galleries and museums (“Associates”) throughout the UK, providing an unprecedented resource with a particular focus on inspiring young audiences.

This is the fi rst time a national collection has been shared and shown simultaneously across the UK and it has only been made possible through the exceptional generosity of the Art Fund – the fundraising charity for works of art.

03 ROBERT MAPPLETHORPE

Robert Mapplethorpe was born in 1946 in , New York to Joan and Harry Mapplethorpe. He was the third of six children and was brought up in a strict Catholic environment. While studying in high school he showed skills as a draftsman.

At the age of sixteen in 1963, Mapplethorpe enrolled at the in nearby , where he studied drawing, painting, and sculpture. Infl uenced by a range of artists including assemblage artist Joseph Cornell and dada artist Marcel Duchamp, he also Robert Mapplethorpe Self Portrait 1980 experimented with various materials in © Robert Mapplethorpe Foundation. Used by permission. mixed-media collages, including images cut from books and magazines. In In the late 70s, Mapplethorpe grew 1970 he and Patti Smith, whom he had increasingly interested in documenting met three years earlier, moved into the the New York S&M scene. The Chelsea Hotel. He acquired a Polaroid resulting photographs are shocking camera that same year and began for their content and remarkable for producing his own photographs to their technical and formal mastery. incorporate into the collages. Mapplethorpe told ARTnews in late Mapplethorpe quickly found satisfaction 1988, “I don’t like that particular taking Polaroid photographs in their word ‘shocking.’ I’m looking for the own right and in 1973 the Light Gallery unexpected. I’m looking for things in New York City mounted his fi rst solo I’ve never seen before … I was in a gallery exhibition Polaroids. Two years position to take those pictures. I felt an later he acquired a Hasselblad medium- obligation to do them.” Meanwhile his format camera and began shooting career continued to fl ourish. In 1977, he his circle of friends and acquaintances participated in in Kassel, – artists, musicians, socialites, West Germany and in 1978, the Robert pornographic fi lm stars, and members Miller Gallery in New York City became of the New York underground. He also his exclusive dealer. worked on commercial projects, creating Mapplethorpe met , the album cover art for Patti Smith and fi rst World Women’s Bodybuilding Television and a series of portraits and Champion, in 1980. Over the next party pictures for Interview Magazine.

04 several years they collaborated on a Art mounted his fi rst major American series of portraits and fi gure studies, museum retrospective in 1988, one year a fi lm, and the book, Lady: Lisa Lyon. before his death in 1989. Throughout the 80s, Mapplethorpe produced a number of images that His vast, provocative, and powerful simultaneously challenge and adhere to body of work has established him as classical aesthetic standards including one of the most important artists of the stylized compositions of male and twentieth century. Today Mapplethorpe female nudes, delicate fl ower still- is represented by galleries in North and lifes, and studio portraits of artists and South America and Europe and his work celebrities. He introduced and refi ned can be found in the collections of major different techniques and formats. museums around the world. Beyond the art-historical and social signifi cance of In 1986 he was hospitalised for his work, his legacy lives on through pneumonia and during treatment was the work of the Robert Mapplethorpe diagnosed with AIDS. Despite his Foundation. He established the illness, he accelerated his creative Foundation in 1988 to promote efforts, broadened the scope of his photography, support museums that photographic inquiry, and accepted exhibit photographic art, and to fund increasingly challenging commissions. medical research in the fi ght against The Whitney Museum of American AIDS and HIV-related infection.

ROBERT MAPPLETHORPE AND PATTI SMITH: ARTIST AND MUSE

Patti Smith and Robert Mapplethorpe Smith was photographed multiple had a unique relationship: they were times by Mapplethorpe and would friends, lovers, artistic collaborators become one of his most frequent and soul mates. Mapplethorpe and sitters. Mapplethorpe photographed Smith met in 1967 and quickly become Smith for the cover of both , her lovers; they would live with one another 1973 volume of poetry, and her album for the next few years. The years they Horses in 1975. Horses would go on to spent together proved to be formative achieve iconic status in popular music to their artistic development; while and defi ne Smith’s androgynous and Mapplethorpe emerged in the mid- uncompromising style – a photograph 1970s as a successful artist, Smith would from the same session is in the ARTIST achieve simultaneous success as a poet ROOMS collection, Patti Smith 1975. and musician, associated with the punk Photographed here with her arms and music genre. lips open, one hand suggestively holds a

05

Robert Mapplethorpe Patti Smith 1979 © Robert Mapplethorpe Foundation. Used by permission. tie which is also around her neck while Smith’s last album prior to a nine-year- she leans against a wall. Mapplethorpe long hiatus from her recording and photographs her as Smith describes it, performance career. Smith, having met ‘at her most confi dent’. Her pose is at and fallen in love with the American once vulnerable and confrontational. musician Fred ‘Sonic’ Smith, was ready to focus on family life and Waves By the late 1970s Smith had achieved refl ected a new sense of calm, charm commercial and critical success. and sincerity. Mapplethorpe captures Mapplethorpe would photograph Smith this in the image Patti Smith 1979 for again for her fourth album, Waves the album’s cover. Smith, with a piercing in 1979, in the same apartment used stare, is somewhat subdued; the light for the Horses shoot. This would be 06 fabric of her dress, the tree that obscures Mapplethorpe would photograph part of the body and the doves that rest her for the cover. Smith would also on either hand give the image a serene, contribute to one of Mapplethorpe’s fi nal almost arcadian feel. projects, Flowers, a book of his fl ower studies, with a foreword which was Patti Smith returned to recording with released several months after his death. the album in 1988, again

Discussion Activity Writing for Time magazine in Mapplethorpe creates an arcadian feel 2011 Patti Smith said of Robert for the Patti Smith Waves shoot, perhaps Mapplethorpe: ‘I was his fi rst model, refl ecting this stage in her life. Depict a fact that fi lls me with pride. The someone close to you, or someone you photographs he took of me contain admire, which refl ects how you feel a depth of mutual love and trust about them. Choose a medium you think inseparable from the image. His work would be most appropriate e.g. a piece magnifi es his love for his subject and of writing, a collage, a sculpture, etc. his obsession with light. So, as one who has stood before the camera of Artist Links many artists and friends, I can only Andy Warhol had more than one advise a photographer to love his muse throughout his life, the most subject, and if this is not possible, love famous of whom was Edie Sedgwick the light that surrounds her.’ What role (1943-71). (b. 1948) does the muse play in the artist’s work? was also a muse for Warhol. Find How do you think the level of intimacy out more about Andy Warhol: shared between an artist and their www.nationalgalleries.org/artistrooms sitter or subject affects the work?

CHILDREN

Mapplethorpe took a number of lack of self-consciousness and a sense photographs of children throughout his of playfulness. Mapplethorpe felt career. Sometimes these photographs strongly that he should have the consent were private commissions and they were of his subjects and once stated that mostly children of friends and society children were the most diffi cult subject to fi gure subjects. In contrast to his highly photograph: ‘You can’t control them. They posed portraits of adults, his images never do what you want them to do.’ of children emphasise their innocence,

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Robert Mapplethorpe Lindsay Key 1985 © Robert Mapplethorpe Foundation. Used by permission. In the work Lindsay Key 1985, the that Cameron’s work is more emotionally subject looks away from the camera, expressive than Mapplethorpe’s. perhaps to avert her face from a gust of wind; her and dress are caught in Discussion the breeze, her posture and bare feet Mapplethorpe’s photographs of highlight a playful nature. Lindsay’s pose children have sometimes proved is a natural counter pose also known as controversial because of the question ‘contrapposto’ which gives the subject a of the subjects’ consent and the context relaxed appearance. of Mapplethorpe’s wider oeuvre. Other Untypical of much of his work from photographs of children in the ARTIST this period Mapplethorpe captures this ROOMS collection include Honey subject outside the studio. The shadows 1976 and Eva Amurri 1988. Why cast by the sitter create a strong contrast might depicting a child or working against her white dress while trees cast with a child prompt ethical questions? abstract shapes in the background. What is the difference between While Lindsay does convey an element working with an adult and child sitter? of innocence she seems more like a What is it about this image and other little adult than a child; she appears images of children by Mapplethorpe confi dent, cool and solemn. that conveys innocence?

Children have long been depicted in Activity art. During the Renaissance, Raphael The contrapposto pose is primarily and Bellini amongst others depicted associated with ancient Greek children often in relation to Christian and Renaissance sculpture such as themes. The Victorian era was a Michelangelo’s David 1504. The particularly rich time; the increased subject’s employment of the pose here, depiction of children was in-line with along with the evident motion of her the development of the concept of left hand and right foot, extends the childhood – a shift in attitudes created allusion to sculpture in Mapplethorpe’s the expectation that a child’s life should work. Identify other examples of the be one of innocence and dependence. contrapposto pose in sculptures and During this period artists such as John visual imagery local to you. Develop a Everett Millais produced a number narrative around the different subjects of landmark paintings of children. At for a short story or visual imagery. the same time the photographer Julia Margaret Cameron’s Renaissance- Artist links inspired photographs depicted children Diane Arbus also photographed as sacred and the embodiment of children but in her portraits the young innocence. Mapplethorpe cited subjects often seem troubled or Cameron as one of his main infl uences. vulnerable. Find out more about While they share in portraiture and Diane Arbus: depictions of innocence, it could be said www.nationalgalleries.org/artistrooms PORTRAITS: ARTISTS AND CELEBRITIES

Portraiture was one of the main strands Richard Marshall, and Some Women of Mapplethorpe’s work and during 1989. His subjects included those his lifetime, he published books which from wide-ranging social and cultural concentrated on portraiture, including contexts: from royalty and aristocracy Lady: Lisa Lyon 1983, Certain People: to rent boys, but a large proportion of A Book of Portraits 1985, 50 New his portraits from the 1980s were of York Artists 1986, in collaboration with prominent fi gures, many in the arts.

Robert Mapplethorpe Grace Jones 1984 © Robert Mapplethorpe Foundation. Used by permission.

10 His portraits can be seen as a in her performances, challenging refl ection of New York’s ‘cultural scene’ representations of the female body. throughout the 1980s and each image She occupies both the mainstream is characterised by Mapplethorpe’s style and avant-garde position within society – his relentless pursuit of beauty where and transformed her body into a imperfections are absent. The works site of power. A second photograph appear not to defi ne the persona of from this session was featured in each sitter but confi rm Mapplethorpe’s Mapplethorpe’s book Certain People: vision, which allows depictions of the A Book of Portraits. sitters that mirror their most perfect selves. The critic and curator Janet Discussion Kardon describes Mapplethorpe’s portraiture subjects as ‘avatars for Mapplethorpe’s interest in portraiture his vision’. stemmed from his concern with the beauty of the human form. Much In 1984 Mapplethorpe photographed of his work has a strongly classical Grace Jones, the Jamaican-American and sculptural quality. What does singer, songwriter, model and actress, Janet Kardon mean when she known for her androgynous looks and describes Mapplethorpe’s portraiture her provocative behaviour. Jones was subjects as ‘avatars for his vision’? a prominent fi gure in the New York Do you think the personality being art and social scene in the 1980s, photographed is relevant to the a successful recording artist, fi lm image and Mapplethorpe? What is actress and sometimes muse of the the difference between the subject artist Andy Warhol. and the sitter? In Mapplethorpe’s Grace Jones 1985, Jones is decorated in body paint by the Activity artist Keith Haring for her performance Mapplethorpe’s subjects are often at Paradise Garage, an alternative referred to as epitomising a particular dance club in New York City. Keith cultural scene with fi gures such as Haring was introduced to Grace Jones Andy Warhol, Marianne Faithful by Andy Warhol and Warhol arranged and Grace Jones. Create a collage for Mapplethorpe to photograph Jones bringing together fi gures which you prior to the performance. Although feel occupy an equivalent scene today. the image could be seen as a multiple collaboration it is classic Mapplethorpe; Artist Links the sitter is portrayed frontally, Alex Katz often paints family and occupying the parameters of the lens friends. Find out more about Alex Katz: in complete symmetry. www.nationalgalleries.org/artistrooms Jones has a perfectly sculpted body and and www.tate.org/artistrooms often took on masculinised personas

11 THE BODY AND SCULPTURE

Robert Mapplethorpe stated that he bodies such as a torso, an extended sought ‘perfection in form’ in all his arm, buttocks and thighs. Mapplethorpe subjects, from nudes and portraits to once stated ‘I zero in on the body part fl owers and architecture. This perfection that I consider the most perfect part in is exemplifi ed by his celebrated studies that particular model’. of the human fi gure; sitters included black models, dancers and body- Mapplethorpe’s black sitters included builders, all with muscular and well- the athlete and model Ken Moody and defi ned bodies. These powerful bodies the dancer Derrick Cross – they would are reminiscent of classical Greek be photographed by him multiple times. sculpture and governed by rules of In the work Derrick Cross 1983 the symmetry and geometry. body’s core fi lls the frame. The arch of the body suggests movement while In 1980 Robert Mapplethorpe met the draped fabric around the waist Lisa Lyon, the fi rst World Women’s enhances the sense of performance Body Building Champion. They would and sculpture. The motion of the torso collaborate several times over the next embellishes the muscle defi nition, few years creating various portraits and emphasising the physicality and sense fi gure studies including both full and of strength. fragmented body images. This series of collaborations, which saw Lyon The evaluation of Mapplethorpe’s take on multiple guises and ‘types’ work in relation to the old masters and of women, would result in the book the Renaissance has focused on his Lady: Lisa Lyon 1983. fi gurative work and still-lifes. Recent major exhibitions include Robert During the same period as his Mapplethorpe and the Classical collaboration with Lisa Lyon, Tradition 2005, at the Guggenheim Mapplethorpe was also photographing Museum, New York, and Mapplethorpe: the male fi gure. Mapplethorpe’s male Perfection in Form 2009 at the Galleria fi gures were often athletic black men dell’Accademia in Florence, Italy, both because, as his biographer Patricia of which exhibited this body of work. Morrisroe would state, ‘he could extract The Galleria dell’Accademia in a greater richness from the colour of Florence is home to great Renaissance their skin’. He would produce a book masterpieces such as Michelangelo’s exclusively of photographs of black David 1504, alongside which men, Black Book 1986. The fi gure Mapplethorpe’s work was shown. studies included images of fragmented

12 Robert Mapplethorpe Derrick Cross 1983 © Robert Mapplethorpe Foundation. Used by permission.

Discussion modelling, casting or constructing yet Mapplethorpe created sculptural Writing in the introduction to Lady: photographs. Consider ways that you Lisa Lyon, the British writer Bruce could create your own two-dimensional Chatwin stated that Mapplethorpe’s sculpture. Consider the materials you ‘eye for a body was that of a classical could use within the limitations of the sculptor in search of an ideal’. two dimensional. Mapplethorpe’s photographs of Lyon explore the parameters and limitations Artist Links of gender; she is fetishised not for her but for her strength and physical Francesca Woodman also beauty. Mapplethorpe once said that photographed the human body ‘photography was a great way to where the subjects identity is make a sculpture’. What do you think sometimes unclear. Find out more he meant by this? about Francesca Woodman: www.nationalgalleries.org/artistrooms Activity and www.tate.org.uk/artistrooms Sculpture is three-dimensional art associated with carving,

SELF PORTRAITURE: IDENTITY AND MORTALITY

While images of the body are associated and ideas of identity, while his late self with ideals of beauty, the portrait is portraits are more autobiographical and often associated with the identity and concerned with questions of existence. individuality. The self portrait is perhaps the most complex aspect of the genre The ARTIST ROOMS collection contains because it brings the artist and the sitter a number of Mapplethorpe self portraits into one with the allure of a private were he takes on different personas, diary. Historically the self portrait is including knife-wielding hoodlum, a linked to artistic identity, experimentation revolutionary and ultimate bad-boy. with techniques and autobiography. He also took on the persona of devil, Mapplethorpe’s self portraits contain all sexual-provocateur and transvestite of these elements: his early polaroids are amongst others. These personas can his fi rst experiments with the self portrait all be considered different facets of and his exploration of photography; his identity. Susan Sontag, writing his works from the late-1970s to the in the introduction to his publication mid-1980s survey different personas Certain People: A Book of Portraits

14 1985, quotes Mapplethorpe as saying Mapplethorpe is wearing black, so that his self portraits express the part of that his head fl oats free, disembodied, him that is most self-confi dent. surrounded by darkness. Using a shallow depth of fi eld, Mapplethorpe For the cover image for his Certain People photographs his head very slightly out publication Mapplethorpe chose the work of focus perhaps to suggest his gradual Self Portrait 1980. Here Mapplethorpe fading away. Robert Mapplethorpe, portrays himself as the archetypal bad until the very end of his life, believed boy, with black leather jacket, dark shirt, that he could beat AIDS. cigarette hanging out of the corner of his mouth, cool gaze and coiffed 1950s-style hair. The image is reminiscent of James Discussion Dean in Rebel Without a Cause 1955 How does a self portrait differ from a and Marlon Brando in The Wild Ones standard portrait? Does Self Portrait 1953. Typical of many of his portraits, the 1988 differ to Mapplethorpe’s earlier pose is wholly frontal and composed so self portraits? What elements of that his mouth lies at the very centre of the autobiography are drawn upon in photograph. this work?

In 1986 Robert Mapplethorpe was Activity diagnosed with AIDS, the syndrome caused by HIV. The HIV/AIDS pandemic Create a map of ideas relating to was one of the most signifi cant your own life and think about how international events in the 1980s and these could be drawn upon to create had affected the lives of many in your own self portrait. Think about Mapplethorpe’s immediate circle. At the the medium you would use – would time, most of those diagnosed with the it be photography? Consider how disease did not survive more than two autobiographical you want to be, or years. Mapplethorpe’s self portraiture would you rather take on a different towards the end of his life refl ected persona? his diminishing health, his search for Artist Links catharsis and his mortality. The subject of mortality is often In Self Portrait 1988 Mapplethorpe explored by Damien Hirst in works is seated facing straight ahead, as if such as With Dead Head 1991 he were looking death in the face – and Away from the Flock 1994. as if he were confronting death. The Find out more about Damien Hirst: skull-headed cane that he holds in www.nationalgalleries.org/artistrooms his right hand reinforces this reading. and www.tate.org.uk/artistrooms

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Robert Mapplethorpe Self Portrait 1988 © Robert Mapplethorpe Foundation. Used by permission.

16 BALANCE AND UNITY

Beyond ideals of the human body, The sitter’s eyes are closed suggesting characteristic of Mapplethorpe’s fi gurative that this work is more closely related to work and ancient Greek sculpture, balance Mapplethorpe’s body studies rather than and unity were key to Mapplethorpe’s one of his portraits. compositions. In his portrait / partial body study Ken Moody 1983 (see front Mapplethorpe’s photograph Patti Smith cover), the sitter is typically photographed 1976, like many of his photographs frontally in perfect symmetry with his of Smith, is taken outside the studio. mouth and nose at the very centre of the Captured while Smith temporarily lived image; his shoulders, which fi ll the bottom in Mapplethorpe’s loft apartment, the of the frame, and the top of his smooth photograph relies on natural light. head form a triangular shape, which Looking pensive and somewhat insecure, was favoured in many of Mapplethorpe’s her body, cradled in a foetal position, sculptures and photographs. Smith holds onto a radiator pipe running along the wall. The geometries of Smith’s body unify the geometries of the room Typical of Mapplethorpe’s work, Ken and enhance perspective. The main axies Moody, a model he worked with are horizontal and vertical, but running in numerous times, is photographed in counterpoint to these are the diagonals of his studio with photographic backdrop the radiator pipes beneath the windows material in the background to allow and of Smith’s arms and legs. absolute focus on the fi gure in the foreground. The lighting is arranged to Despite lacking a studio, lighting enhance the sitter’s symmetrical features, and styling equipment, the image is muscle defi nition and bone-structure. quintessentially Mapplethorpe.

Left image: Robert Mapplethorpe Patti Smith 1976. Right image: Robert Mapplethorpe Lowell Smith 1981 © Robert Mapplethorpe Foundation. Used by permission. 17 CENSORSHIP AND FREEDOM OF EXPRESSION

Robert Mapplethorpe became famous in the 1970s and 1980s for his male nudes and sexually explicit imagery. These images tested the boundaries of creative freedom and his work therefore holds a signifi cant place in the history of artistic struggle to depict the world as it is with honesty and truth.

His work, including photographs of people engaged in sexual acts, polarised some people and prompted questions about censorship and freedom of expression. His work would widely be referred to as part of the so-called Robert Mapplethorpe Self Portrait 1983 culture wars in the early 1990s, along © Robert Mapplethorpe Foundation. Used by permission. with that of other prominent fi gures in art and popular culture such as the fi lm director Martin Scorsese, visual artist to identify with the Devil because of his and pop star Madonna. own ‘sinful’ behaviour. Thus, he becomes Noticeably, all were raised Catholic a rebel soldier fi ghting for a cause. and questioned the church through their art. Religious symbolism was evident Mapplethorpe once said that ‘beauty throughout Mapplethorpe’s career. and the Devil are the same thing’, and his fascination with the devil was In Self Portrait 1983 Mapplethorpe evident in his work. He would also make shows himself in battle dress (leather reference to Saint Francis of Assisi and jacket), posing as a revolutionary fi gure, Saint Peter. In the work Lisa Lyon 1982 rifl e in hand, in front of his sculpture he uses his sitter to create an effi gy Black Star 1983, which consists of a of Christ. The cross is a symbol which black-painted frame in the shape of a would appear in Mapplethorpe’s work pentagram. This particular pentagram throughout his career, and many of is inverted (one point facing down) his sculptures were in the shape of a and could therefore be interpreted as cross. He once stated ‘I like the form of a symbol of the Devil. Mapplethorpe, a cross, I like its proportions. I arrange brought up a devout Catholic, later liked things in a Catholic way’.

18 SUMMARY

Key things to think about:

Key Words: Process: Neo-classicism • Nude • Innocence Sculpture • Photography Artists • Sexuality • Love • Death Body •Pleasure • Black & White Links to other artists in National Childhood • Taste • Desire collections at National Galleries of Sex • Youth • Celebrity Scotland and Tate Andy Warhol, Julia Popular Culture • Music • Erotic Margaret Cameron, Marcel Duchamp, Portraiture • Sculpture • Lines • Light Salvador Dalì, Auguste Rodin, Man Ray, Beauty • Perfection • Athletic • Unity Antonio Canova Balance • Censorship Links to Art Movements Neo-classicism, Renaissance, mannerism, rococo, baroque, surrealism, Sitters and Subjects: dadaism, postmodernism Self • Friends • Bodies • Lovers • Artists Writers • Actors • Bodybuilders Models • Dancers • Children • Statues Flowers • Subcultures

19 GLOSSARY

ADONIS ASSEMBLAGE A handsome youth in Greek mythology Art made by assembling disparate loved by Aphrodite. He was killed by elements often scavenged by the a wild boar and restored to Aphrodite artist, sometimes bought specially. from Hades. One Mapplethorpe’s early infl uences, Joseph Cornell, is associated with AIDS assemblage art, as are his sitters Robert A disease of the immune system, Rauschenberg and . caused by the virus HIV, leading to death from infections that the AVANT-GARDE body is no longer able to resist. The New and experimental ideas and disease had a devastating effect on methods in art, music and literature. the gay community in the 1980s and many of Mapplethorpe’s friends and GIOVANNI BELLINI acquaintances were victims of the An Italian Renaissance painter (c.1430- disease. Mapplethorpe died from an 1516), probably the best known of the AIDS-related illness in 1989. Bellini family of Venetian painters.

ANDROGYNOUS Combining features that are typically French-American artist and sculptor male with features that typically (1911-2010), best known for her female and therefore of uncertain sex. contributions to both modern and Mapplethorpe’s female models such contemporary art, and for her spider as Lisa Lyon, Patti Smith and Grace structures, titled Maman, which Jones are often described as having resulted in her being nicknamed androgynous looks. the Spiderwoman. Bourgeois was photographed by Mapplethorpe in ARCADIAN 1982. Refers to a vision of pastoral bliss and harmony of nature and derives from a MARLON BRANDO Greek region of the same name known American fi lm star (1924-2004) who for its wilderness and unspoilt beauty. came to prominence in the 1950s with The work Patti Smith 1979 is described performances in fi lms such as A Street Car as having an arcadian feel. Named Desire 1951, On the Waterfront 1954 and The Wild Ones 1953. In the latter he played Johnny Strabler, a rebel gang leader. Imagery associated with the character had a signifi cant impact on popular and youth culture.

20 JULIA MARGARET CAMERON CULTURE WARS A British photographer (1815-79) known Confl ict of values between conservative for her portraits of prominent society and liberal groups characterised in fi gures of the time. the 1980s by conservative climate of the Reagan administration in the USA. TRUMAN CAPOTE During this period members of the American author and society fi gure religious right often criticised academics (1924-84) who was a subject of and artists for what they regarded Mapplethorpe’s. as their indecent, subversive and blasphemous work. BRUCE CHATWIN A British writer (1940-89) who was a DADAISM subject and friend of Mapplethorpe. Early twentieth-century movement in art and literature based on deliberate CHELSEA HOTEL irrationality and negation of traditional A hotel renowned as the artistic values. Mapplethorpe’s early home for many artists, writers and infl uences such as Marcel Duchamp are musicians in 1970s and 1980s New associated with the dada movement. York. Mapplethorpe lived at the Chelsea Hotel in the early 1970’s with Patti JAMES DEAN Smith. Cultural icon and American fi lm star (1931-55) best known for playing the CONTRAPPOSTO troubled teenager Jim Stark in A Rebel An asymmetrical arrangement of the Without A Cause 1955. human fi gure in which the lines of the arms and shoulders contrast with, DERRICK CROSS while balancing, those of the hips and A New York based modern dancer who legs. The most famous example of posed for Mapplethorpe on numerous contrapposto is Michelangelo’s David occasions. Mapplethorpe’s photographs 1504. A number of Mapplethorpe’s of Cross often focus on body sections sitters pose in a contrapposto, including such as his torso, arm or buttocks. Lindsay Key 1985. DOCUMENTA JOSEPH CORNELL An exhibition of modern and An American artist (1903-72), contemporary art taking place every fi ve associated with assemblage, and a years in Kassel, Germany. Mapplethorpe major infl uence on Mapplethorpe. participated in Documenta 6, 1977.

21 GLOSSARY

MARCEL DUCHAMP LISA LYON French artist (1887-1968), associated Professional bodybuilder, winner with dada, who was a major infl uence of the fi rst World Women’s Body on Mapplethorpe. Championship in 1979. Mapplethorpe produced a book of his photographs EROS with Lady: Lisa Lyon 1983. Greek god of love, counterpart of Roman cupid. MADONNA American singer-songwriter (b.1958) JOHN EVERETT MILLAIS know for her sexually provocative music A British painter (1829-96) and videos and song lyrics. one of the founding fathers of the Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood. KEN MOODY A model, athlete and fi tness instructor. MARIANNE FAITHFULL Mapplethorpe photographed Moody A British singer-songwriter (b. 1946) numerous times, some of which who Mapplethorpe photographed on were featured in his publication more than one occasion. Black Book 1986.

SAINT FRANCIS OF ASSISI MUSE A much revered Italian Catholic The word ‘muse’ comes from the Greek preacher (1181-1225c). mousa originating from Mnemosyne, the goddess of memory and mother of the KEITH HARING Muses. In Greek mythology Zeus and American artist (1958-90) whose work Mnemosyne were the parents of nine is often associated with New York goddesses each of whom was regarded street culture. Haring was a subject and as the protectress of a different art or contemporary of Mapplethorpe. science. The word muse is now used to HASSELBLAD refer to a woman who is the source of A brand of medium format camera. inspiration for a creative artist. Throughout Mapplethorpe fi rst began using a history artists have been inspired by the Hasselblad camera in 1975. minds and bodies of women; Victorine Meuren inspired Édouard Manet’s GRACE JONES The Luncheon on the Grass 1863 and American-Jamaican singer, actress Olympia 1863 and Edie Sedgwick and model (b. 1948). Mapplethorpe was Andy Warhol’s most famous muse, photograhed Jones in 1984 and 1988. starring in a number of his fi lms.

22 NEO-CLASSICISM SATYR The revival of a classical style or In classical mythology, a woodland god treatment in art, literature, architecture, associated with drunken revelry and or music dominant in Europe in the mid- lustfulness. In Greek representations, the seventeeth and the eighteenth century. satyr was a man with certain attributes of Mapplethorpe acknowledged the a horse, such as a horse’s ears and tail, infl uence of the neo-classical in his work. and in Roman representations he was References to French painter Jacques- a man with the tail, legs and horns of a Louis David (1748-1825) are particularly goat. Mapplethorpe gives his sitters the evident in Mapplethorpe’s work. appearance of a satyr in works such as Alan Lynes 1979 and Snakeman 1981. SAINT PETER An early Christian leader who was one MARTIN SCORSESE of Jesus’s twelve apostles. American fi lm director (b. 1942) known for works such as Taxi Driver 1976 PUNK and Goodfellas 1990. His fi lm The Last A movement among young people in Temptation of Christ was embroiled in the mid to late 1970s, characterised by the culture wars of the early 1990s. a violent rejection of established society and expressed through punk rock and ANDRES SERRANO wearing of aggressively outlandish American artist (b.1950) whose clothes and hairstyles. controversial work Piss, Christ 1987 was involved in the culture wars of RAPHAEL the early 1990s. Italian painter (1483-1520) associated with the Renaissance. PATTI SMITH American singer-songwriter, poet and RENAISSANCE performance artist, a close friend and The revival of European art and confi dante of Mapplethorpe. Smith literature under the infl uence of (b. 1946) was sometimes referred to classical models in the fourteenth as the poetess of punk. and fi fteenth centuries. TELEVISION S&M American rock band who were Sadomasochism is broadly a form photographed by Mapplethorpe in 1977 of physical role play – those involved for their album cover. get pleasure from receiving or infl icting pain and/or humiliation. ANDY WARHOL American pop artist (1928-87) who had a major infl uence on and who was a subject for Mapplethorpe. 23

FIND OUT MORE

Websites Further Reading The Robert Mapplethorpe Foundation: Robert Mapplethorpe, Perfection in Form, www.mapplethorpe.org London, 2009. ARTIST ROOMS: Sylvia Woolf, Polaroids, Munich and www.tate.org.uk/collection/artistrooms/ New York, 2007. and www.nationalgalleries.org/ Arthur C. Danto, Robert Mapplethorpe, collection/artistrooms London, 2007. ARTIST ROOMS On Tour with the Art Keith Hartley, Robert Mapplethorpe, Fund: www.artfund.org/artistrooms Edinburgh, 2006. The J. Paul Getty Museum: , Mapplethorpe, Italy, www.getty.edu/ 1992. The Guggenheim: Richard Marshall, Mapplethorpe’s www.guggenheim.org Vision, New York, 1990. The Los Angeles County Museum of Art: Robert Mapplethorpe and Patti Smith, www.lacma.org Flowers, , 1990. Cheim & Read: Robert Mapplethorpe and , www.cheimread.com/artists/ Some Women, Boston 1989. robert-mapplethorpe Janet Kardon, Robert Mapplethorpe: The Alison Jacques Gallery: www. Perfect Moment, Philadelphia, 1988. alisonjacquesgallery.com/artists/Robert- Richard Marshall and Robert Mapplethorpe Mapplethorpe, 50 New York Artists: A Critical Selection of Painters and Online Films Sculptors Working In New York, San ARTIST ROOMS Robert Mapplethorpe Francisco, 1986. exhibition at Museums Sheffi eld: Robert Mapplethorpe and Ntozake www.tate.org.uk/collection/ Shange, Black Book, New York, 1986. artistrooms/artist.do?id=11413 Robert Mapplethorpe and Susan Sontag, Watch Robert Mapplethorpe’s Certain People: A Book of Portraits, 1988 Arena interview: Pasadena, 1985. www.dailymotion.com/video/ xnhqtv_robert-mapplethorpe- Robert Mapplethorpe and Bruce Chatwin, arena-1988_creation Lady, Lisa Lyon, New York, 1983. Robert Mapplethorpe, Robert Mapplethorpe: 1970-1983, London, 1983.

All works: ARTIST ROOMS Tate and National Galleries of Scotland. Acquired jointly through The d’Offay Donation with assistance from the National Heritage Memorial Fund and the Art Fund 2008

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