Robert Mapplethorpe: Saints and Sinners
An exhibition titled ‘Saints and Sinners’ reflects on Robert Mapplethorpe’s career and the larger dialogue regarding freedom of expression in the arts.
The exhibition at Sean Kelly, New York marks the twenty-fifth anniversary of the landmark exhibition ‘Robert Mapplethorpe: The Perfect Moment’.
Bringing together twenty-seven pairings of Mapplethorpe images this current exhibition explores the theme of Saints and Sinners. While some pairings have more obvious connections, others are more ambiguous in their associations. The 54 images that comprise Saints and Sinners, some of which have rarely been exhibited, offer the viewer an opportunity to find personally meaningful connections in each piece. Mapplethorpe himself skilfully subverted any moral implications by presenting his subject matter in an objective manner, putting the onus on the viewer to draw their own conclusions.
Mapplethorpe’s Self-Portrait (1980) in drag is paired with a portrait of the singer and actress, Amanda Lear (1976), offering two unique depictions of female sexuality. While Bruce Mailman (1980) and Christopher Holly (1981) are, in different guises, potentially perceived as either playful or nefarious. Together, the photographic pairings in Saints and Sinners offer the possibility of seemingly endless personal interpretations of the work and a fresh perspective on Mapplethorpe’s practice and his fearless contribution to contemporary photography.
Mapplethorpe was born in 1946 in New York. He took his first photographs using a Polaroid camera and later became known for his portraits of artists, architects, socialites, stars of pornographic films and members of the S&M community. During the early 1980s, his photographs shifted to emphasise classical formal beauty, concentrating on statuesque male and female nudes, flowers, still life’s and formal portraits.
‘Robert Mapplethorpe: Saints and Sinners’ is on display from Saturday 14 December 2013 until Saturday 25 January 2014 at Sean Kelly Gallery in New York, US.
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