Though its music, and use of Mapplethorpe’s photographs and texts by Essex Hemphill and Patti Smith were impressive in their own rights, the performance Triptych (Eyes of One on Another) ultimately appeared cheap, forced, and self-congratulatory.
Robert Mapplethorpe
Posted inArt
Pulled into Robert Mapplethorpe’s Vortex of Voyeurism
“What’s S&M?” I overhear a woman asking her husband in the exhibition. “The artist says here that it stands for sex and magic, but this set up doesn’t look very magical.”
Posted inFilm
The New Robert Mapplethorpe Biopic Is Ironically Timid
The movie barely feels invested in Mapplethorpe’s art, much less in trying to replicate its sensibility.
Posted inArt
Looking at Queer Constellations of Intimacy
Intimacy at Yossi Milo Gallery unites a diverse assembly of artists tracing the outline of affection from the 1980s to present day.
Posted inPerformance
Black Queer Artists Explore the In-Between
At LA’s Main Museum, an evening of multimedia performance including hip-hop, poetry, and readings looked at the intersections between queerness and blackness.
Posted inArt
The Woman Behind Critique My Dick Pic Sizes Up Art Photos of Male Nudes
In tongue-in-cheek answers, Madeleine Holden assigns a Critique My Dick Pic-style review and grade for artists’ photographs of male nudes, ranging from the late 19th century to today.
Posted inFilm
A Mapplethorpe Documentary Favors Contemplation Over Controversy
Fenton Bailey and Randy Barbato’s new documentary Mapplethorpe: Look at the Pictures offers intimate insights into the controversial photographer’s life and persona.
Posted inArt
Longing for Keith Haring’s Lighthearted Penises
It may seem unusual to uphold a book of penis drawings as a significant art-historical moment, but Manhattan Penis Drawings for Ken Hicks creates an unignorable link between Haring’s early work and his homosexuality.
Posted inArt
Catherine Opie’s Intimate Photographs of S&M
LOS ANGELES — If you visited LA this summer, it would have been hard for you to ignore the presence of Robert Mapplethorpe.
Posted inArt
Robert Mapplethorpe: Beauty, Power, and Sex from the Outside
LOS ANGELES — The remarkable two-museum show Robert Mapplethorpe: The Perfect Medium, gathering hundreds of photographs, collages, installations and other objects at both the Los Angeles County Museum of Art and the Getty Center, represents just a portion of the spectacular gift of the Mapplethorpe Trust to those institutions.
Posted inNews
Artist Claims Copyright to Four Photos of Robert Mapplethorpe in $65 Million Lawsuit
On Tuesday, the poet, actor, photographer, and makeup artist James R. Miller filed a lawsuit against the Robert Mapplethorpe Foundation, claiming copyright to four photographs that have been shown and sold for decades as Mapplethorpe’s work.
Posted inArt
25 Years After an Obscenity Trial, Cincinnati Reflects on Robert Mapplethorpe
CINCINNATI — What do you think of when you hear the name “Robert Mapplethorpe?”