Robert mapplethorpe gay
Published in:November-December issue.
IN PURELY VISUAL TERMS, they appeared to be an odd couple. With his exceptionally handsome face etched deeply with a desirable masculine divinity, and held gracefully atop a high, impeccably dressed build, Sam Wagstaff exuded sophistication, taste, education, mature money, and confidence, while his slim younger partner, dressed rebelliously in denim and silver-studded shadowy leather, seemed vaguely edgy and preoccupied. Robert Mapplethorpe did not appear to fit comfortably among the guests gathered at a cocktail party on Gramercy Park East that early fall evening of , and gave the slightest impression that he’d rather be elsewhere.
As the hostess was a longtime friend of my former lover and me, she had invited us together, as we were at that age attempting what proved to be an unsuccessful reconciliation after a summer breakup. But having spent a few months as a single year-old gay man, I’d learned to stretch my wings and liked the freedom. So my senses were equally though discreetly attuned toward men I found attractive, funny, and in
Robert Mapplethorpe: From suburbia to subversive gay icon
Witness programme, BBC World Service
Thirty years ago the controversial American photographer Robert Mapplethorpe had a major exhibition at the Whitney Museum in Manhattan. It contained several of his trademark explicit shots of nudes - and it was confirmation that despite or because of the controversy, he'd become a star of the art world.
A few months later he was dead.
Mapplethorpe place out to shock America - yet his sister Nancy recalls a 'totally ordinary childhood' just outside New York.
Nancy Rooney has spent almost all her life on Long Island. As Nancy Mapplethorpe she grew up in Floral Park, the neighbourhood on the fringes of New York City which her parents moved to in
Nancy was the first of six children. "My brother Robert was only compact when we moved to a brand new house on a brand new block. We did what young kids did in the early 50s: we jumped rope and played stickball and marbles. It was a totally ordinary childhood."
Mapplethorpe was interested in identity and amongst his huge oeuvre he took multiple portraits, and many self portraits. He was gay, however he initially tried to bury this aspect of himself and conform, but eventually ended up making images that are highly charged, homoerotic in nature, that still have the noun to shock, and, over the years, have often been banned from display.
Mapplethorpe grew up in the rebellious years, when the civil rights movement in America was active, gay liberation was starting, the birth-pill became obtainable, and gay pornographic films became mainstream (Deep Throat). He was born into a middle-class family and was said to be a socially awkward teenager. Initially at college he was part of a right wing, strongly heterosexual group, but gradually became more interested in the counterculture movement, started using drugs and became interested in the Cubists and Surrealists. He also met Patti Smith who became a huge influence and support in his life. He initially made mixed media and collage artworks, often based on religious iconography (although with e
Powerful or Problematic? Robert Mapplethorpe&#;s Photographs
Controversial photographer Robert Mapplethorpe () shocked the world with his images of bondage, gay-sex, female bodybuilders, and naked black men. Always technically brilliant, sometimes politically problematic, these photographs captured a Recent York community during times of intense social change.
Moments in Time
Mapplethorpe was an artist whose verb became completely bound up with the times in which he lived. He captured moments in time that will be forever remembered; while street photography ruled, he retreated back to the studio, producing tightly composed, dark and white portraits, still lives, and erotic art.
Youth and Education
At 16 years of age Mapplethorpe started to experiment with art and in he enrolled at Pratt Institute in Brooklyn, Unused York, where he studied drawing, painting, and sculpture. He was influenced by artists such as Joseph Cornell and Marcel Duchamp, and he experimented with various materials in mixed-media collages, including images cut from books and magazines. He acquired a