Robert Mapplethorpe
The catalogue Robert Mapplethorpe, published by Marsilio Arte and edited by Denis Curti, accompanies the trilogy of exhibitions dedicated to the artist, held in the cities of Venice, Milan and Rome.
A maverick genius who redefined the codes of portrait and nude photography; a contemporary shaman of a secret and scandalous side of New York; a refined, concise and elegant champion of an idea of absolute beauty. Robert Mapplethorpe was also, above all, an artist deeply aware of art history, a refined connoisseur who constantly sought to dialogue with the past in order to generate innovative and contemporary images. His vision was influenced by classicism, which Mapplethorpe not only studied but also copied, renewed and interpreted, translating into photography the principles of harmony, proportion and formal perfection that characterise ancient sculpture.
The volume accompanying the three-stage exhibition project places Mapplethorpe’s most famous photographs of classical, perfect and eternal sculptures in direct dialogue with images featuring fleeting and sensual male and female models, who echo the poses or angles of the former, creating a visual comparison between the sculptural representation of the human body and its photographic representation.
With the aim of tracing the various stages of Mapplethorpe’s career and artistic research, a comprehensive and updated monograph has been created, recounting the crucial phases of his production, from his early explorations with collages to his later works, including his iconic photographs of nudes, portraits and floral compositions.
