Robert Mapplethorpe: The Perfect Medium

A large scale retrospective examines the work and career of one of the most influential American photographers of the 20th century, Robert Mapplethorpe (1946-1989). 

It is presented in a landmark collaboration between Los Angeles County Museum of Art (LACMA) and J. Paul Getty Museum who in 2011 jointly acquired art and archival material from The Robert Mapplethorpe Foundation.

Over 300 works are displayed between the two museums such as portraiture, the nude, still life, rarely seen correspondence, books and other ephemera, including those from the artist's archive held by the Getty Research Institute.

The exhibit at LACMA (March 20-July 31, 2016) focuses on Mapplethorpe's working methods, sources, and creative processes – the experimental and performative aspects of his work. The J. Paul Getty Museum exhibit (March 15-July 31, 2016) focuses on Mapplethorpe's disciplines studio practice, figure studies, and legacy. 


 

The artwork reveals the rich and broad context, the obsessive attention to detail, the statuesque poses, and sophisticated lighting that brought Mapplethorpe to fame.

His refined style challenges the viewers, explains curator and head of the Wallis Annenberg Photography department, Britt Salvesen, "to consider his portraits, flowers, and sexually explicit images as equal expressions of a personal vision. His drive to capture the perfect moment is the core of the art."

The exhibit at LACMA transitions through five thematic sections.
The first gallery reflects the 1970s and 1980s urban gay culture, depicting himself and his models openly declaring their sexuality through clothing, body adornment and gesture.

Then follows Mapplethorpe's work created in the late 1960s and early 1970s designing jewelry and temporary assemblages using items of clothing.

He was inspired by Andy Warhol, Jasper Johns, and Robert Rauschenberg, and experimented with collages and constructions, often incorporating Catholic iconography and appropriated imagery from homosexual periodicals.

In the third gallery Mapplethorpe's Polaroid photographs reveal his observational acuity and his ability to be in the moment. Included are Mapplethorpe's self-portraits as he was open about being a participant in the scenarios he depicted.

The next gallery focuses on Mapplethorpe's involvement with the leather and bondage community, his appropriation of pornographic source material, and his exploration of the African-American male nudes.
 

The fifth gallery presents work from the mid-1980s, when Mapplethorpe was running a successful studio and producing many commissioned portraits. Among his favorite subjects were the artists, musicians, and other performers he first encountered in the downtown art scene in the 70's.   

Mapplethorpe commented that photography was "the perfect medium for the 70s and 80s, when everything was fast. If I were to make something that took two weeks to do, I'd lose my enthusiasm. It would become an act of labor and the love would be gone." 

Highlights of the exhibition include his 1980 self-portrait as a smoking

leatherman, the 1967 portraits of his friend Patti Smith and, starting in 1979, the photographs of Lisa Lyon, the first woman to win the International Federation of Body Builders female competition. 
 

The Getty's exhibition features the full range of Mapplethorpe's photographs, including his best known images, alongside work that has been seldom exhibited. Key themes include those of his long-time benefactor and lover Samuel J. Wagstaff Jr., poet musician Patti Smith, and fashion designer Carolina Herrera, among others. It also includes a number of intimate self portraits and Mapplethorpe's controversial X portfolios, 13 photographs depicting the gay s&m community.

After being diagnosed with AIDS in 1986, Mapplethorpe continued to work more ardently, and in 1988 founded the Robert Mapplethorpe

Foundation. A 1988 self portrait shows Mapplethorpe's face revealing signs of illness, his hand gripping a skull-topped cane, a symbol of his impending death. The simple composition and brutal honesty combine to make this photograph one of his most visually and psychologically powerful images.

The Getty and LACMA will be the exhibition's sole U.S. venues. The exhibition will be combined and toured as one for the Montreal Museum of Fine Arts in Montreal, Canada (August 29, 2016 to January 22, 2017), the Art Gallery of New South Wales in Sydney, Australia (October 28, 2017 to February 4, 2018) and another international venue.

The exhibit runs from March 15 through July 31, 2016, at the J. Paul Getty Museum. Getty Center. 1200 Getty Center Dr., Los Angeles, CA 90049, and from March 20 through July 31, 2016, at Los Angeles County Museum of Art (LACMA), 5905 Wilshire Blvd., Los Angeles, CA 90036. For more information call (323) 857-6000 or visit http://www.lacma.org/ or www.getty.edu