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This is the first time in twelve years that a complete set has appeared at auction. ‘X’ portfolio has become such a key piece in Robert Mapplethorpe’s oeuvre that it has been included in every important exhibition of his work worldwide, reproduced in all his major monographs, and featured prominently in documentaries about his life and art.
Dec 3, 2012 · It was in L.A. that one of the first exhibitions of the controversial X Portfolio, featured in the current LACMA exhibition Robert Mapplethorpe: XYZ, was shown at the now-defunct Los Angeles Institute of Contemporary Art (LAICA) on Robertson Boulevard. In August of 1978, almost immediately after the thirteen sadomasochistic homoerotic images ...
Not currently on public view. X Portfolio, Robert Mapplethorpe (United States, 1946–1989, active New York City), 1978, Photographs, Black clamshell case with gelatin silver photographs.
Featuring portraits, nudes, still lifes, and the controversial X Portfolio, the exhibition explores Mapplethorpe’s studio practice and the creation of his foundation, which has shepherded his legacy into the 21st century.
- Childhood and Education
- Early Period
- Mature Period
- Later Period
- The Legacy of Robert Mapplethorpe
Born in 1946, Robert Mapplethorpe was the third of six children. His father, Harry, worked as an electrical engineer while his mother, Joan, stayed at home raising their six children. Mapplethorpe grew up in a conservative Catholic household nestled in the quiet Queen's suburb of Floral Park. Mapplethorpe described his hometown as too safe to stay,...
Having been heavily influenced by Warhol and his experimental underground film, Chelsea Girls (1966), set in the Chelsea hotel, Mapplethorpe moved into that same hotel with Smith in 1969. He was hired on as a photographer for Interviewmagazine (co-founded by Warhol) which covered international celebrities, artists, and musicians alike. Like many as...
The mid-1970s mark the apex of Mapplethorpe's career through his prolific portraiture of close friends, socialites, and his photographic investigations into the darker side of sexual fantasy. In 1975, Mapplethorpe photographed Smith for her debut studio album, Horses. Set in Wagstaff's penthouse, Mapplethorpe demonstrated his maturing black and whi...
Around 1980, Mapplethorpe moved away from S&M images and applied himself primarily to the formalist approach of traditional subjects like flowers and nudes. He admired Ed Ruscha's ability to remove a subject from any context and sought to produce images in this severe formal artistic language. Watermelon with a Knife (1985), Thomas (1986), and Leaf...
Louise Bourgeois said of his work, "He is famous not for his flower pictures, he is famous for his objectionable sexual representation." Mapplethorpe was not just a documentarian of the homoerotic lifestyle of the 1970s. There is no doubt that he influenced the art world as a whole, LGBT activism, and censorship laws. Many attribute his giant influ...
- American
- November 4, 1946
- Floral Park, New York
- March 9, 1989
Oct 19, 2022 · One route to fame was to achieve an infamy of subject matter, and Mapplethorpe’s X Portfolio – a series of graphic photographs documenting sadomasochistic sex acts – was perfect for this.
The exhibition, Robert Mapplethorpe: XYZ, features a total of thirty-nine black-and-white photographs, exploring three subject matters: homosexual sadomasochistic imagery (X, published in 1978); flower still lifes (Y, 1978); and nude portraits of African American men (Z, 1981).
