On first appearance the exhibition at Graves Gallery, Sheffield, appears clean cut and ingenuous, but it doesn’t take long for the real Robert Mapplethorpe to come to life.
Armed with a graphics art degree, the born and bred New Yorker began taking Polaroid’s of his friends who were artists and socialites, but it soon became clear that controversy would be a product of his liberal creativity.
This exhibition shows his most iconic work of ex-lover Patti Smith, right up to his last few pieces that began to define his portrayal of beauty.
A handful of his work shows his fascination of the punk rock scene with images of leather, studs and cigarettes.
He captures this rock image in one particular photograph, showing the back of a leather jacket adorned with anarchic words of protest.
Another photograph shows sculptor Louise Bourgeois holding a penis shaped model in a suggestive manner.
These two interests sparked his later boundary-pushing work of homosexual sadomasochism images shown in the next room.
In one photograph, he cleverly captures Brian Ridley and Lyle Heeter in a humourous way, showing them wearing nothing more than leather and chains in their living room.
It shows domination and submissiveness in such a casual way that it appears normal and retracts from controversy.
His work might have been in black and white, but his subjects are far from it.
The monochrome contrast works best for the Andy Warhol portraits that are emotionless yet striking.
As soon as you have him down as an artist inspired by punk and sex, his later work shows a different side.
Classical and renaissance art, particularly ancient Greek and Roman sculptures, inspired him to bring these elements in modern form.
His image of the female body builder Lisa Lyon shows this with her muscular body that still retains femininity.
But Robert was very much drawn to ambiguities and this immediately comes across.
Stylistically it’s the choice of colour contrast but his Catholic upbringing led him to look at the opposite of innocence. Many other opposites appear in the exhibition and it seems to be his driving force.
His Patti Smith images are almost the opposite of the masculine Lisa Lyon portrait.
In one image he takes a photograph of Patti Smith with two birds which shows her modest femininity. He also took the up-close and personal portrait that was used for her ‘Horses’ album.
His most daring and personal photograph is of John McKendry, which was taken just one day before his death. Robert cropped the picture to put attention on an electrical cord to show that his death was near.
Similarly he portrayed his own acceptance of death 13 years later. By wearing black clothes against a black background, his head appears to be floating. He also looks straight into the lens, as if he is staring at death directly in the face.
Every piece of work is a crisp black and white portrait but his ability to pinpoint an individual’s personality adds a flourish of imaginative colour.
This exhibition is the perfect collection to show his different styles in one room and takes you right into the world of Robert Mapplethorpe.
He knew how to make a portrait tell a thousand words through his style and subject and although he may not be with us today, his iconic and original photography stays with us.
Kristi Genovese
