Robert Mapplethorpe (1946-1989)

Patti Smith, 1988 (printed 1990)

Silver gelatin print

Paper/mount: 24 x 20 in. (61 x 50.8 cm)

AP 2/2 from an edition of 10 + 2 AP

With the photographer's Estate stamp, signed and dated by Michael Ward Stout, Executor, in ink on the reverse of the flush mount

Robert Mapplethorpe's vast, provocative, and powerful body of work has established him as one of the most important artists of the twentieth century. Born in Floral Park, Queens, the artist received his formative training at Pratt Institute where he studied drawing, painting, and sculpture, and began creating mixed media collages and constructions. It was during this period that the artist first met Patti Smith. In 1970, Mapplethorpe began producing Polaroid photographs. After acquiring a Hasselblad 500 camera in 1975, his photographs extended to portraits of his friends and acquaintances in the arts and the S&M community. It was also in 1975 that Mapplethorpe shot the cover for Smith's now iconic Horses album. Through the 1980s, the artist became known for the formal and technical mastery of his sublime yet provocative photographs depicting portraits, still lives, nudes, and flowers. In 1988, there was a major retrospective of Mapplethorpe's work at the Whitney Museum of American Art. Beyond the art historical and cultural significance of his work, his legacy lives on through the work of the Robert Mapplethorpe Foundation. Established in 1988 by the artist, the Foundation promotes photography at the institutional level, by supporting museums that exhibit photographic art, and funds medical research in the fight against HIV/AIDS.

Mapplethorpe has been the subject of numerous international solo and group exhibitions including: Museo Novecento, Florence, Italy (2023); Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, New York (2019); Fundacao Serralves, Porto, Portugal (2018); Los Angeles County Museum of Art (2016); J. Paul Getty Museum, Los Angeles (2016); Grand Palais, Paris, France (2014); Tate Modern, London (2014); Modern Art Museum, Oxford (2009); Galleria dell'Accademia, Florence, Italy (2009); State Hermitage Museum, St. Petersburg, Russia (2004); Mitsukoshi Museum of Art, Tokyo (1996); Tel Aviv Museum of Art (1992); National Portrait Gallery, London (1988); Whitney Museum of American Art, New York (1988); Centre Georges Pompidou, Paris (1983); Palazzo Fortuny, Venice (1983); Kunsthalle Basel (1981); The Kitchen, New York (1977), among many others.

The Artist's work is in the public collections of: The Art Institute of Chicago; Borusan Contemporary, Istanbul; Broad Museum, Los Angeles; Brooklyn Museum; Centre Pompidou, Paris; Dallas Museum of Art; Fogg Museum, Harvard University, Cambridge; Getty Museum, Los Angeles; Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, New York; Los Angeles County Museum of Art; Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York; Museo Nacional Centro de Arte Reina Sofia, Madrid; Museum of Fine Arts, Boston; Museum of Modern Art, New York; National Portrait Gallery, London; Norton Museum of Art, West Palm Beach; San Francisco Museum of Modern Art; Smithsonian American Art Museum, Washington, D.C.; Tate Modern, London; Uffizi, Florence; and the Whitney Museum of American Art, New York, among many others.

Absentee bids are being accepted for this auction lot. To place an absentee bid, please contact Jennifer Lima: [email protected] or call the KMA Development office at: 914.767.2979.

Image: Patti Smith, 1988 Copyright Robert Mapplethorpe Foundation. Used by permission.

Courtesy of the Robert Mapplethorpe Foundation