BEAUTIFUL PRINT FROM ROBERT MAPPLETHORPE CALLA LILY COLLECTION. IN GLASS FRAME, VERY HEAVY, SOME WATER MARKS ON BORDER ONLY, NOT ON THE ARTWORK.

SIZE 104X74 CMS

Robert Mapplethorpe was an American photographer known for his black-and-white portraits, still-life, images of flowers, and for documenting New York’s S&M scene.

He was concerned with Classical aspects of beauty throughout his life, whether in his nudes, still life, or portraits: light, shadow, composition, and form were central to all his early and late photographs.

While Mapplethorpe did not agree with the claim that his provocative photographs were “shocking,” his work came under fire from the religious right in the late 1980s for its supposed obscenity, sparking a national discussion as to whether the US government should fund the arts at all.

Born on November 4, 1946 in Floral Park, NY, Mapplethorpe befriended poet and artist Patti Smith while they were both living and working in New York.

Inspired by the mixed-media picture approaches of Joseph Cornell and Marcel Duchamp, Mapplethorpe combined Polaroids with cut text to create collages in the 1970s.

He would also utilize different photographic techniques, such as photoengraves and Cibachrome, throughout his career.

He died from an AIDS-related illness on March 9, 1989 at the age of 42 in Boston, MA, one year after the Whitney Museum of American Art in New York presented the first major retrospective exhibition of his work at an American museum.