Robert Mapplethorpe: The Perfect Medium
Art Gallery of New South Wales, Sydney
28 October 2017 – 4 March 2018
Robert Mapplethorpe, Phillip Prioleau, 1982, silver gelatin print. Courtesy: © Robert Mapplethorpe Foundation. Used by permission
‘Robert Mapplethorpe: The Perfect Medium’ at the Art Gallery of New South Wales, Sydney, celebrates one of the most renowned photographers of the 20th century, an artist who understood the medium’s ability to alter perceptions and push boundaries.
This comprehensive survey of Robert Mapplethorpe’s career features over 200 works, including floral still lifes, portraits, figure studies and erotic imagery that charts his involvement in New York’s gay scene, as well as a selection of archival material providing insights into his working methods and life.
An icon who photographed other icons, Mapplethorpe captured and shaped an era with portraits that immortalised the cultural idols of the 1970s and 1980s, including lifelong muse Patti Smith, fellow artists Cindy Sherman and Louise Bourgeois, actor Isabella Rossellini and musicians Debbie Harry and Philip Glass.
Whether he was photographing a figure, a fetish or a flower, Mapplethorpe pursued what he called ‘perfection in form’. The legacy of his unflinching quest for beauty has an enduring political and artistic resonance.