Customer Reviews

Robert Mapplethorpe And The Classical Tradition: Photographs and Mannerist Prints

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How far we've come! Not many years ago Robert Mapplethorpe's inimitable photographs were the cause célèbre in museums and galleries. Even journalists and politicians and filmmakers focused on the 'pornographic' aspects of Mapplethorpe's varied output. Yet today his place in the canon of art history is assured, and as proof of this status, here is a catalogue that accompanied an exhibition co-hosted by the prestigious Guggenheim Museum and the State Hermitage Museum of Russia!

The sophisticated curators have elected to compare and contrast the Mannerist prints and sculptures from the Hermitage with the photographs from the Guggenheim showing how Mapplethorpe's nudes and flowers and still lifes share much of the same obsession with eros and passion. Placing the etchings and sculptures side by side with Mapplethorpe's complementary photographs is a valid and informative curatorial concept. The result of this comparison heightens our appreciation for Mapplethorpe's photographic compositions and manipulations of the nude form.

The 'catalogue' book includes informed essays by Arkady Ippolitov, Germano Celant, Guggenheim Curator Jennifer Blessing - each beautifully written and each cogent on the subject of the juxtaposition of Mapplethorpe with the Mannerists.
The reproductions of both the photographs and the etchings and sculptures are superb. This is one museum catalogue that stands very well as an art history book. Recommended. Grady Harp, August 05

A fantastic reference in respect of Robert Mapplethorpe's more purist work. Amazingly well presented, printed and published, it has relevant accompanying text and essays, and as with most Mapplethrorpe images, the plates are simply brilliant. Be aware, this text is an important part of the book, so it's not all just pictures, but it asssists with giving an insight into the formalist manner in which the photographs were taken.
This book is for anyone with an interest in the Robert Mapplethorpe's work, or if you just want to own a record of some of the best photographs ever taken.

This book combines astute background commentary and scholarly explanation with a solid selection of the late Robert Mapplethorpe's often striking photographic images, in this case those of the human form, and the result is an excellent book that showcases who this artist was, and what his work was about. It was in my hometown, of course, that "The Perfect Moment" a showing of Mapplethorpe's work about seventeen years ago led to the disgraceful obscenity prosecution of an art museum--the only such case ever pursued in the United States. I take it as a mark of some pride that the verdict in that case was not guilty, and, if I may add this, that my father was someone actively involved in the defense of the arts and the freedom of expression that helped in some fashion to uphold liberty in our community and nation. For that reason, as well as for its own merits, this book, a recent Christmas present, holds meaning to me.