An Expansive New Exhibition of Robert Mapplethorpe’s Lesser-Known Works
Miss Rosen, AnOther
30 November 2023
Over the course of his brief but wondrous life, Robert Mapplethorpe was a seminal force in elevating photography to the realms of fine art. Guided by a clear vision, steely determination, and impeccable grace, he crafted images that confronted the proscribed confines of both politics and art by challenging authority on the very ground it stood.
But Mapplethorpe would not live to see the fruits of his success, and died from Aids-related illnesses at age 42 in 1989. Knowing he had not yet fulfilled his destiny, he established the Robert Mapplethorpe Foundation a year earlier to ensure the mission continued without him. He died amidst a flurry of controversy around The Perfect Moment, a touring solo exhibition featuring provocative scenes of gay BDSM that ignited the wrath of neoconservatives hell-bent on persecuting that which they deemed “obscene”. Invariably, they lost but the damage was done. In the decade following Mapplethorpe’s death, his books were banned, his work censored, his name synonymous with scandal. But Michael Ward Stout, president of the Foundation handpicked by the artist himself, soldiered forth, knowing there was far more to Mapplethorpe’s legacy than what the public had seen. […]