Galleria Lucio Amelio, Naples
Naples, Fondazione Amelio, Terrae Motus, 6 July–31 December 1984
Lausanne, Musée d’Art Contemporain, Fondation Edelman, Robert Mapplethorpe, 1991
Florence, Galleria dell’Accademia, Lugano, Museo de Arte, Robert Mapplethorpe: Perfection in Form, 26 May 2009–13 June 2010
(each another example exhibited)
G. C. Argan et al., Terrae Motus, exh. cat., Naples, Fondazione Amelia, 1984
C. Mihetti, C.A. Riley, Mapplethorpe, exh. cat., Lausanne, Musée d’Art Contemporain, Fondation Edelman, 1991
Robert Mapplethorpe: Perfection in Form, exh. cat., Florence, Galleria dell’Accademia, 2009
American • 1946 - 1989
After studying drawing, painting and sculpture at the Pratt Institute in the 1960s, Robert Mapplethorpe began experimenting with photography while living in the notorious Chelsea Hotel with Patti Smith. Beginning with Polaroids, he soon moved on to a Hasselblad medium-format camera, which he used to explore aspects of life often only seen behind closed doors.
By the 1980s Mapplethorpe's focus was predominantly in the studio, shooting portraits, flowers and nudes. His depiction of the human form in formal compositions reflects his love of classical sculpture and his groundbreaking marriage of those aesthetics with often challenging subject matter. Mapplethorpe's style is present regardless of subject matter — from erotic nudes to self-portraits and flowers — as he ceaselessly strove for what he called "perfection of form."
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