Robert Mapplethorpe on view at Le Stanze della Fotografia curated by artistic director Denis Curti . (This link opens in a new tab).

Le Stanze della Fotografia in Venice announces their next major exhibition, devoted to a true, and still in many ways controversial, star of international photography: Robert Mapplethorpe (New York, 1946 – Boston, 1989). Curated by Le Stanze della Fotografia’s artistic director, Denis Curti, the show Robert Mapplethorpe. Le forme del classico is organised and promoted by Marsilio Arte and Fondazione Giorgio Cini in collaboration with the Robert Mapplethorpe Foundation in New York. The exhibition will be staged in Venice, at the photography centre Le Stanze della Fotografia, on the island of San Giorgio Maggiore, from 10 April to 23 November 2025.

Robert Mapplethorpe. Le forme del classico has been conceived as the first act of of a larger trilogy, part of a path of study and research aimed at deepening and broadly investigating the figure of Mapplethorpe, which includes two other exhibition events in 2026. Robert Mapplethorpe. Le forme del desiderio will be the second chapter in this wide-ranging examination of Mapplethorpe’s oeuvre, and will be staged at Palazzo Reale in Milan, displaying a retrospective of his work, with a selection of his most iconic, powerful and daring images, focusing on the more intense and provocative aspects of his artistic output. Robert Mapplethorpe. Le forme della bellezza will be held at the Museo dell’Ara Pacis in Rome and will focus on his studies of beauty understood as classical harmony, with detailed comparisons between images and a selection of significant pictures taken in Italy that have not been previously shown.