ROBERT MAPPLETHORPE: LE FORME DELLA BELLEZZA
MUSEO DELL’ARA PACIS, ROME, ITALY: UNTIL 4 OCTOBER
29 May – 4 October 2026
Robert Mapplethorpe, Dennis Speight, 1980. © Robert Mapplethorpe Foundation.
Robert Mapplethorpe: The Forms of Beauty marks the final chapter of a major exhibition project, following presentations at Stanze della Fotografia, Venice, and Palazzo Reale, Milan.
The Rome presentation brings together key works from the exhibition’s earlier iterations, including portraits of figures from art, literature, music and cinema, among them Yoko Ono, Robert Rauschenberg, Donald Sutherland, David Byrne and Richard Gere. Also included are self-portraits, photographs of Mapplethorpe’s muses Patti Smith and Lisa Lyon, flower studies, and images of the male and female body.
A dedicated section explores Mapplethorpe’s dialogue with the ancient world, placing his photographs in conversation with two classical sculptures from the Capitoline Museums: the Statue of Aphrodite, and the Statue of an Athlete.