Robert Michael Mapplethorpe ( MAY-pəl-thorp; November 4, 1946 – March 9, 1989) was an American photographer. Best known for his black-and-white photographs, his work encompassed celebrity portraits, male and female nudes, self-portraits, flowers, and still-life images.
Early in his career, Mapplethorpe created jewelry, drawings, collages, and found-object sculptures, gradually incorporating photography into his collages before turning to photography as his primary medium. His ability to move between different social worlds was reflected in his portrait work. His most controversial photographs documented the gay male BDSM subculture of New York City during the 1970s. His 1989 exhibition, Robert Mapplethorpe: The Perfect Moment, sparked a debate in the United States over the use of public funds for allegedly "obscene" artwork and the Constitutional limits of free speech in the United States.
Mapplethorpe was born in the Floral Park neighborhood of Queens, New York City, the son of Joan Dorothy (Maxey) and Harry Irving Mapplethorpe, an electrical engineer. He was of English, Irish, and German descent and grew up as a Catholic at Our Lady of the Snows Parish. Mapplethorpe attended Martin Van Buren High School, where he graduated in 1963.
He had three brothers and two sisters. One of his brothers, Edward, later worked for him as an assistant and became a photographer as well. He attended the Pratt Institute in Brooklyn, where he majored in Graphic Arts. He dropped out in 1969 before finishing his degree.
In 1967, Mapplethorpe began living with his girlfriend Patti Smith, who supported him by working in bookstores. They created art together and maintained a close friendship throughout Mapplethorpe's life after their romance ended in 1970.
In the late 1960s and early 1970s, Mapplethorpe designed and sold handmade jewelry composed of religious and symbolic charms. His early pieces were made from found materials, but they evolved to include beads, dice, feathers, rabbits' feet, silver skulls, and crosses, reflecting his Baroque sense of style. His jewelry was modeled by Warhol superstars Ultra Violet, Jay Johnson, and Joe Dallesandro. During this period, Mapplethorpe also produced drawings, collages, and found-object sculptures, gradually incorporating photography into his collages.
In July 1971, Mapplethorpe's boyfriend, David Croland, introduced him to John McKendry, curator of photographs and prints at the Metropolitan Museum of Art, who became his first significant benefactor. Through McKendry, Mapplethorpe gained access to influential figures in the art and fashion worlds, including Henry Geldzahler, who introduced him to David Hockney, and photographer Francesco Scavullo. Mapplethorpe acknowledged that he deliberately cultivated connections to advance his career, describing his approach as "subtle aggressiveness."
In September 1971, McKendry invited Mapplethorpe to accompany him on a trip to London, and arranged for him to stay with Catherine Tennant at her flat on King's Road. McKendry encouraged Mapplethorpe to photograph members of Britain's aristocracy, envisioning him as a successor to Cecil Beaton as a portraitist of high society. During his three-week stay in London, however, Mapplethorpe made relatively few photographs. He had a sexual encounter with McKendry in London, and photographed him in a bathtub at Alexis de la Falaise's farmhouse in Wales. He also met artist and filmmaker Derek Jarman.
Mapplethorpe then traveled to Paris, where he stayed with fashion designer Fernando Sanchez and socialized with Loulou de la Falaise and fashion designer Yves Saint Laurent. Saint Laurent took an interest in Mapplethorpe's handmade fetish jewelry, incorporating similar designs into his collections.
Mapplethorpe spent his 25th birthday in Paris on November 4, 1971. Concerned that his career was losing momentum, he told McKendry that he would not return to New York until he had taken more photographs. He nevertheless remained in Paris, where he began a relationship with a Frenchman named François, whom he photographed several times over the following years.
On November 24, 1971, Robert Having His Nipple Pierced premiered at the Museum of Modern Art, following efforts by filmmaker Sandy Daley to persuade the museum to screen the film. Later that year, McKendry gave Mapplethorpe a Polaroid camera for Christmas, replacing the borrowed and unreliable cameras he had previously used. In a letter, Mapplethorpe expressed his gratitude to McKendry and his wife Maxime de la Falaise for their support, and said he was confident that his work would eventually have an influence.
Mapplethorpe continued to work with collages and assemblages and had not yet committed himself exclusively to photography. Inspired by Joseph Cornell, he created Cornell-style boxes for the McKendrys. McKendry also gave him access to the Metropolitan Museum's private photography collection, allowing him to study works that had not been publicly exhibited. Curator Henry Geldzahler later said that McKendry "taught Robert about photography in the best possible way." In April 1972, McKendry took Mapplethorpe to Boston to introduced him to executives at the Polaroid Corporation in Boston, whose Artist Support Program provided cameras and film to selected artists.
Shortly afterward, Croland introduced Mapplethorpe to art curator and collector Sam Wagstaff, whom he had met through curator Sam Green and photographer Peter Hujar. Wagstaff had become interested in Mapplethorpe after seeing a Polaroid of him in Croland's apartment and soon contacted him. Mapplethorpe showed Wagstaff his collages, constructions, jewelry, Polaroids, and photographic transfers. Although Wagstaff was initially reserved about the explicit sexual content of Mapplethorpe's work, he was impressed by its candor and offered his support. Wagstaff and Mapplethorpe became lovers, and Mapplethorpe later credited their relationship with transforming his life and career, saying, "It was love at first sight. After that, everything turned around for me."
When Smith decided to move in with her boyfriend, musician Allen Lanier, Mapplethorpe could not afford to remain in their apartment. In October 1972, Wagstaff gave him $15,000 toward a loft at 24 Bond Street, only a short distance from his own. The financial support enabled Mapplethorpe to establish his own home and studio, allowing him to devote himself more fully to his artistic career. Although Mapplethorpe and Wagstaff were sometimes portrayed as having a reciprocal arrangement in which Wagstaff promoted Mapplethorpe's career while Mapplethorpe assisted with his collection, no formal agreement existed. Mapplethorpe initially had mixed feelings about photography but increasingly recognized its suitability to his working methods. In 1988, he told curator Janet Kardon:"It [photography] was the perfect medium, or so it seemed, for the seventies and eighties, when everything was fast. If I were to make something that took two weeks to do, I'd lose my enthusiasm. It would become an act of labor and the love would be gone. With photography, you zero in; you put a lot of energy into short moments, and then you go on to the next thing. It seems to allow you to function in a very contemporary way and still produce the material."In January 1973, the Light Gallery in New York City mounted Mapplethorpe's first solo gallery exhibition. That spring, he participated in the group exhibition Soft as Art, which featured soft sculptures, at the New York Cultural Center. In September, Andreas Brown, owner of the Gotham Book Mart, published Smith's third volume of poetry, Witt. Smith commissioned Mapplethorpe to photograph her for the cover and persuaded Brown to include his photographs in an upcoming group exhibition at the bookstore featuring Polaroids by Pop artist Andy Warhol and his associate Brigid Polk.
Around 1975, Wagstaff gave Mapplethorpe a Hasselblad medium-format camera. He experimented with self-portraits and began taking photographs of a wide circle of friends and acquaintances. In June 1976, during a trip to London, he photographed members of the British aristocracy and upper class, including Isabel and Rose Lambton, Guy Nevill, Stella Astor, Charlie Tennant, John Paul Getty III, and Catherine Guinness.