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Summary: Perfect Light, Perfect Darkness: An Astonishing Artist
Review: Born in 1945, Robert Mapplethorpe studied drawing, painting and sculpture at the Pratt Institute--and then quickly evolved into one of his era's foremost photographers, first experimenting with found-photograph collages and Polaroid photography, but soon moving to significantly more sophisticated work in which he experimented with numerous photographic processes. Along the way, he also developed a very distinct style, an eye for shadow and light and ambiguity of material that lent his work an edge that was uniquely his own. Between 1973 and his death in 1989, Robert Mapplethorpe's work would appear in well over 200 one-man and group shows, many of them in highly prestigious museums and galleries, throughout America and Europe.In spite of his considerable acclaim and influence in arts circles, Mapplethorpe remained largely unknown to the public at large--until the very eve of his death in 1988, when the Institute of Contemporary Art of the University of Philadelphia mounted a major overview of his work. Named "The Perfect Moment," the exhibition was funded in part by the National Endowment for the Arts--and when the exhibit arrived in Washington D.C. it provoked a firestorm of controversy. Led by such conservatives as Senator Jessie Helms and conservative religious leaders as the Rev. Wildemon, The Perfect Moment was roundly condemned, and the National Endowment for the Arts was attacked for having funded the exhibition in the first place. Ironically, in consequence of this condemnation, The Perfect Moment would go on to become one of the most seen and most profitable arts exhibitions in the history of the United States. And Robert Mapplethorpe would become a household word. In some respects Mapplethorpe had always been a controversial artist. The great bulk of his work consisted of still-life flower studies, portraits, and nudes--but it also included a host of images deemed flatly pornographic, images that showed explicit heterosexual and homosexual behavior and often including sadomasochistic activity, images that were deliberately designed to both shock and titillate. And indeed, these photographs--many of them dating from more than thirty years ago--still have considerable power. But the power of Mapplethorpe's photography is not mere shock value, and even less is it is titillation. It is in the very fine line he walks in presenting his work, a balance between dark and light that ultimately reads as a balance between life and death. His photographs present a world in which sordid, occasionally grotesque material acquires beauty--and in which the beauty of a flower, the beauty of the human form seems captured on the brink of annihilation and becomes all the more beautiful for the sense of its impending fall. Like some of it, all of it, none of it, one thing is clear: Mapplethorpe had genius, and he was adept at communicating through the power of his images. This is the official catalogue of "The Perfect Moment" exhibition, featuring essays by Janet Kardon, Ray Larson, David Joselit, and a dedication by Mapplethorpe's longtime friend and rock artist Patti Smith--all of which serve to broaden one's grasp of Mapplethorpe's vision. But most importantly, the book includes photographs. The flowers, the faces, the bodies, the still-lifes, and yes, the controversial photographs as well, over seventy in all. And each, in its own way, is extraordinary. Robert Mapplethorpe is not, perhaps, an artist whose work you would like to give your fundamentalist Great Aunt Edna--unless, of course, you are hoping to drive her into heart failure and inherit her estate. But he is an artist who looks into both the supreme beauties and the darkest fears of the world... and who tells you in turn that you may look too. Astonishing and memorable. GFT, Amazon Reviewer
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