Overview
The artist was influenced by studies of painting and sculpture and was also inspired by the poetic imagery of the classical ideal.
Galerie Thaddaeus Ropac is pleased to announce the exhibition “Body Parts” of the American photographer Robert Mapplethorpe.
This exhibition brings together twelve Gelatine-silver prints from 1978 to 1988, all coming from the Estate of Robert Mapplethorpe.
The early 1970s witnessed the emergence of photography-based art and after two decades where minimalism and conceptualism prevailed, a new generation of artists introduced body art, video or performance as a new means of expression in Art, and it is in this context that Robert Mapplethorpe started to work.
The artist was influenced by studies of painting and sculpture and was also inspired by the poetic imagery of the classical ideal. He described photography as “the perfect way to make a sculpture.”
His photographs are mostly infused with personal references and subjective expression, and are allusions to real time and emotion.
Among the foremost subjects that Mapplethorpe pursued were the body parts. These pictures have an abstract beauty because what is depicted in them is not immediately recognizable, and this ambiguity also brings a certain erotic feeling.
