What are your opinions on his artwork and legacy? i love his work
interesting life to say the least
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What are your opinions on his artwork and legacy? i love his work
interesting life to say the least
by Anonymous | reply 129 | February 21, 2018 4:32 AM |
He was marvelous!
by Anonymous | reply 2 | December 3, 2017 3:42 AM |
Gross racist dinge queen!! Glorified pornography photographer!
by Anonymous | reply 3 | December 3, 2017 3:49 AM |
He was talented and creative but also obviously partially unhinged. One of those push-the-envelope neurotics.
by Anonymous | reply 5 | December 3, 2017 3:58 AM |
None of his work is interesting nor does it stand any test of time. He was a softcore pornographer.
by Anonymous | reply 7 | December 3, 2017 4:02 AM |
I LOVE Patti Smith. But Mapplethorpe? Eh... She exaggerated his greatness and influence. Like the previous poster said, he was a softcore pornographer. She loved him. I get it. But he wasn't all that.
by Anonymous | reply 8 | December 3, 2017 4:05 AM |
Oh r6, that is so disgusting!
by Anonymous | reply 9 | December 3, 2017 4:08 AM |
At his most beautiful. He did some good, possibly great, work outside of soft pornography.
by Anonymous | reply 10 | December 3, 2017 4:19 AM |
Owes his career to big black cocks. And artsy fartsy lighting.
by Anonymous | reply 11 | December 3, 2017 4:21 AM |
Indecent!
by Anonymous | reply 12 | December 3, 2017 4:42 AM |
You sound like a bitter Betty, R11.
by Anonymous | reply 13 | December 3, 2017 4:46 AM |
He was part of a secret circle of rich artsy types in NYC that had dark parties in Upper East Side townhouses which featured scat, drugs, and Satanism.
by Anonymous | reply 14 | December 3, 2017 4:48 AM |
Sounds like a poo shoes accusation.
by Anonymous | reply 15 | December 3, 2017 4:53 AM |
^^^it does, but in this case it’s true.
by Anonymous | reply 16 | December 3, 2017 4:55 AM |
He shot some nice album covers, in addition to the well-known Patti Smith ones
by Anonymous | reply 17 | December 3, 2017 4:55 AM |
Gross man. He and Patti Smith bonded over their mutual lust for social climbing and fame and starfucking. He finally found a rich older benefactor who paid for everything and allowed him to indulge his vices and peccadilloes in whichever way he pleased...mind you, now that I'm writing this, isn't that what we all kind of want?
So forget his "art" (read Patti's autobio and you'll be nauseated at their pretentiousness and phoniness), let's tip our hats to his gold-digging; the man obviously wielded a very irresistible shovel.
by Anonymous | reply 18 | December 3, 2017 4:59 AM |
His work is forgettable. Even when he’s trying to say something with it, it’s a one-shot deal.
by Anonymous | reply 19 | December 3, 2017 5:04 AM |
Mapplethorpe was a racist bigot. Fuck him.
by Anonymous | reply 20 | December 3, 2017 5:27 AM |
He was a 'documenter'. Not an artist.
His great images comes from documenting great things or people.
by Anonymous | reply 21 | December 3, 2017 5:37 AM |
He'd be in jail today. Some of his photos constitute child pornography.
by Anonymous | reply 22 | December 3, 2017 6:48 AM |
his study of flowers was magnificent.
so there.
by Anonymous | reply 23 | December 3, 2017 7:07 AM |
I'm surprised that there are so many negative appraisals here
by Anonymous | reply 24 | December 3, 2017 7:15 AM |
Kitsch, and nothing more.
Like a toddler saying "poo poo" because it gets a reaction from adults.
by Anonymous | reply 25 | December 3, 2017 7:18 AM |
I like that one.
by Anonymous | reply 27 | December 3, 2017 7:35 AM |
Dear lord in heaven, r16! If not the moms, who will advocate for our precious tailed children so desperately in need of treatment? Who?
Prayers going up for this dear soul.
by Anonymous | reply 28 | December 3, 2017 7:45 AM |
R6, that is. I'm all flustered at the length of that thing!
by Anonymous | reply 29 | December 3, 2017 7:48 AM |
R6, I won't because you wouldn't know the answer.
R29, you mean the whip?
by Anonymous | reply 30 | December 3, 2017 8:07 AM |
His portraits are my favorite.
by Anonymous | reply 31 | December 3, 2017 8:13 AM |
Very talented - amazing portraits. Also surprised to see so much negativity here.
by Anonymous | reply 32 | December 3, 2017 8:39 AM |
He probably wasn’t the nicest guy, and his career was paid for by a rich and influential boyfriend. But he was talented, and aside from his subject matter, he created an unique visual aesthetic that has been endlessness copied by both art and commercial photographers to this day.
by Anonymous | reply 33 | December 3, 2017 8:52 AM |
This is supposed to be artistic. A naked black man with a shiny high-heel on his ass. Whatever.
by Anonymous | reply 34 | December 3, 2017 7:55 PM |
But is it art?
by Anonymous | reply 35 | December 3, 2017 8:03 PM |
He photographed the iconic Peter Berlin with his famous pageboy haircut.
by Anonymous | reply 36 | December 3, 2017 8:05 PM |
Nice cut!
by Anonymous | reply 37 | December 3, 2017 8:06 PM |
He and sugar daddy Sam Wagstaff actually look good together.
by Anonymous | reply 38 | December 3, 2017 8:08 PM |
[quote]Gross racist dinge queen!!
Oh, the irony.
by Anonymous | reply 39 | December 3, 2017 8:18 PM |
I always know when I’m looking at one of his photos because of his signature lighting. Very uniquely talented, but also deranged, person.
by Anonymous | reply 41 | December 3, 2017 8:26 PM |
When I first moved to New York in the 1970s, I lived on West Houston Street. When I wanted cut flowers, I'd buy them from a florist at the corner of West Houston and Sixth. (The space had previously been a tiny Italian restaurant that closed when the owners were jailed for laundering Mafia money and is currently a Korean deli.) At any rate, I got to know the owner a little and he often bragged that Mappleworth was a close friend and bought his Calla Lilies from him.
I stopped going there when he tried to lure me into a scat scene in the back room. I won't repeat the tale he told me about the San Francisco cop with an elephant dung fetish who got his jollies by breaking into the zoo.
by Anonymous | reply 42 | December 3, 2017 10:07 PM |
^ I lnow, MAPPLETHORPE not MAPPLEWORTH! How did I do that?
by Anonymous | reply 43 | December 3, 2017 10:08 PM |
I remember waiting in line to view 'The Perfect Moment' at the Cincinnati Contemporary Art Center, many years ago. One of the local newspaper critics (I think it was David Wecker) wrote something like, "He's a talented photographer. That was a perfect photo of one man's fist in another man's ass." I already owned his 'Black Book' back then (it now resides with my ex).
'Thomas' in R1's photo was porn performer Joe Simmons (I didn't really 'know' porn until later). His (Joe's) work is easy to find on different porn tube sites. I liked his (Robert's) work, but I'm not going to comment on his on-going value as an artist. He documented a very specific time in our history, as I don't think anyone other than Nan Goldin did.
by Anonymous | reply 44 | December 3, 2017 11:09 PM |
R17, I think that's Laurie Anderson.
by Anonymous | reply 46 | December 4, 2017 4:50 AM |
Correct, R46 - was just saying that besides the Patti Smith covers, he did some for others as well (maybe didn't word it well)
by Anonymous | reply 47 | December 4, 2017 5:03 AM |
We bought a zoo!
by Anonymous | reply 48 | December 4, 2017 8:15 AM |
The dick in OP's photo is the ugliest dick I've ever seen.
by Anonymous | reply 49 | December 4, 2017 8:35 AM |
You must be kidding. I'd be all over that hose.
by Anonymous | reply 50 | December 4, 2017 8:48 AM |
He was a great artist, but fit into the stereotype of great artists being tortured souls who are total shitheads to other people.
by Anonymous | reply 51 | December 4, 2017 8:55 AM |
[quote]Very talented - amazing portraits. Also surprised to see so much negativity here.
These people clearly have no idea how good Mapplethorpe was as a photographer. They only see his pics of black dicks or S/M scenes and fail to see beyond the subject matter. Racists and homophobic cunts obviously have problems with guys like Mapplethorpe.
by Anonymous | reply 52 | December 4, 2017 9:03 AM |
I NEVER got that Cult of Patti......she never did a thing for me.....like the grateful dead.....what? why? isn't she famous by association?
by Anonymous | reply 53 | December 4, 2017 4:34 PM |
R49 You are a smegmaphobe and a racist dreary. That is one beautiful dick.
by Anonymous | reply 54 | December 4, 2017 4:38 PM |
The documentary on him, Look at the Pictures, was pretty good. Brooke Shields was out of place in it, apparently it was a big deal he photographed her in profile.
by Anonymous | reply 55 | December 4, 2017 4:47 PM |
FUN FACT: Robert Mappelthorpe and former first lady Laura Bush were born on the same day, Nov. 4, 1946.
Unlike Laura Bush, though Robert Mappelthorpe never killed anyone.
by Anonymous | reply 56 | December 4, 2017 5:03 PM |
R56 We don't know that for sure!
by Anonymous | reply 57 | December 4, 2017 5:25 PM |
In the photography history class I took, he was hailed as a portrait artist. In the text, this self portrait was the photo that represented his work.
by Anonymous | reply 58 | December 4, 2017 5:34 PM |
A bottom with a camera will never be able to resist taking explicit photos of themselves and then showing them to as many people as possible.
by Anonymous | reply 59 | December 4, 2017 5:48 PM |
Porn is hot, cheap, thrilling (usually) His pictures are sort of lifeless and unsexy. Very stylish, though.
by Anonymous | reply 60 | December 4, 2017 6:08 PM |
Luc Sante wrote a good essay about Mapplethorpe that captured the complexity of his character and work - and mentioned the peculiar coldness of his most graphic pictures.
by Anonymous | reply 61 | December 4, 2017 6:33 PM |
R53 agree about Patti and the Dead. Never did a thing for me either.
by Anonymous | reply 62 | December 4, 2017 6:42 PM |
I took my mother to see this show at the ICA in Boston (where it was not banned and Led Zeppelin was). There were a few whiners around town - one lone protester showed up on opening day. Even Cardinal Law kept his fat yap shut about it.
Back then you could make arguments in favor of art and freedom of expression and they would usually win. These days, I don't know if Americans can muster up that much backbone.
Mom loved the show. She bought a calla lily print that was on the wall in her house until she died. Now I have it and it's a lovely reminder of a nice day with my mother who taught us to fear no art. I have no issue with anyone who criticizes Mapplethorpe's work on its artistic merits (or lack thereof). I may agree or disagree but at least it's a valid argument. The pearl clutchers need to shut the fuck up, especially here on the DL.
by Anonymous | reply 63 | December 4, 2017 6:43 PM |
I worked at his final show in the '80's @ the Whitney Museum . He was in a wheel chair and looked very wan, skinny , wasting away. Such a talent....So sad to lose him. I love his work.
by Anonymous | reply 64 | December 4, 2017 6:48 PM |
If you watched the HBO documentary mentioned above, you would see how ducked up he really was. He was a cruel, sel-serving egomaniac. His scat fetish and Satanism was confirmed. He had a thing for black men, who he referred to a n*****s, and blamed them for his contracting AIDS (although he'd been playing with/consuming shit, blood play. and engaging in bare backed sex all before/during the onset and rise of AIDS in NYC. As if that wasn't enough, he even had a pet monkey during his college years, that he let starve to death. After the animal's death, one of his friends said they came to Mapplethorpe's apartment, where Robert was boiling the flesh off the animal's bones. He was talented, but he was seriously fucked up. Had he never seduced Sam W., he'd have never been heard of.
by Anonymous | reply 65 | December 4, 2017 7:22 PM |
R65, please find your way back to whatever rock you crawled out from under.
by Anonymous | reply 66 | December 4, 2017 7:29 PM |
I still find it hard to believe anyone is into scat.
by Anonymous | reply 67 | December 4, 2017 7:43 PM |
NSFW!!!
by Anonymous | reply 68 | December 4, 2017 7:45 PM |
Vile sociopathic sex pig. Two trick pony - fetish porn and 80s corporate still lives and portraits for hanging in Wall St offices. Ugly, too.
by Anonymous | reply 69 | December 4, 2017 7:49 PM |
R65, your information is 100% correct.
Mapplethorpe was a racist. He was obsessed with black men, ye called them the N word constantly. He was definitely into scat.
Read his ex lover's biography on Mapplethorpe, it's free online. IIRC, his ex lover was the editor of DRUMMER. I forgot his name, but it's sure some insightful reading.
by Anonymous | reply 70 | December 4, 2017 7:50 PM |
R66 he is stating facts, I have seen the interview with his former roommate about the monkey. Mapplethorpe was an evil bastard.
by Anonymous | reply 71 | December 4, 2017 7:51 PM |
Not read the whole thread here's the latest doc
by Anonymous | reply 72 | December 4, 2017 7:53 PM |
[quote]Back then you could make arguments in favor of art and freedom of expression and they would usually win. These days, I don't know if Americans can muster up that much backbone.
Haters hate and on the internet everyone is a critic with a voice joining other critics and their voices. Ther result is an internet lynch mob. Because the non-haters are usually like "whatever, man!" rolling their eyes and leaving.
by Anonymous | reply 73 | December 4, 2017 7:54 PM |
The scat thing is true, the racist thing is true, even the satanism is true. He was quite a character. I don’t know enough about photography to say whether his pictures are good. Everyone says they are, so what do I know? I like some of them. The one where he’s shitting the whip is pretty cool.
by Anonymous | reply 74 | December 4, 2017 9:16 PM |
Mapplethorpe's brother is actually an accomplished photographer, Edward Mapplethorpe. The brother actually printed a lot of Robert's photos. Photography isn't just about the subject, the composition and taking the photo, it's also about the print. Printing is very important to fine art photography.
I recall an interview with the brother, where he started Robert wasn't much interested in the printing, he usually left that to others.
“Robert had no interest in the technical side of photography,” said Patricia Morrisroe, who wrote his biography. “He never did his own printing, and his work grew in sophistication and proficiency when he brought his brother on.”
by Anonymous | reply 75 | December 4, 2017 9:36 PM |
R65 thanks for reconfirming what I stated about asshole Mapplethorpe further up thread. That he was a racist bigot and he was obsessed with black men. And he also referred to them as "N" words! His only purpose for them was to fetishsize them. And treat them as sex objects. As so many gay white men do. Instead of him taking responsibility for himself contracting aids. He blames black men for his promiscuous behavior.
Once again fuck him glad he's no longer of this world.
by Anonymous | reply 76 | December 4, 2017 9:52 PM |
"Fetishsize" indeed...
by Anonymous | reply 77 | December 5, 2017 10:36 AM |
by Anonymous | reply 79 | December 5, 2017 5:35 PM |
He should have went to jail for the above, and others.
by Anonymous | reply 80 | December 5, 2017 5:38 PM |
It's no wonder he and Patti Smith clicked. They both were intensely full of themselves, both pretentious assholes,
and they both had only one goal: to be famous.
His "art" was mostly porno type shit. It was mean to be "shocking." I thought the best thing he did was the cover photo for Patti Smith's album "Horses."
He really was a piece of shit. Although racist, he loved black cock. He was mindlessly promiscuous and of course got AIDS. But even after getting AIDS he continued his reckless sexual behavior. It's said that he deliberately sought out black men after his AIDS diagnosis because eh thought he'd probably gotten in from a black man, so he could give back what he got. Robert Mapplethorpe was truly a horrible human being.
by Anonymous | reply 81 | December 5, 2017 5:47 PM |
He never would have been famous if he started in the internet age. People would have looked at his cock pictures and shrugged their shoulders. Patti Smith had one good song. Because the Night. Everything else she did was a horror show.
by Anonymous | reply 82 | December 5, 2017 6:11 PM |
Found the book by Mapplethorpe's ex-lover Jack Fritscher, Ph.D
He's offering the entire book online to read for free. It's also available to buy at Amazon. This is from Jack's website.
"Mapplethorpe: Assault with a Deadly Camera is a vivid, compelling story of a specific group at a specific time in a specific place, living in a Golden Age before AIDS and its lost civilization sank beneath a viral sea. This pop culture memoir contains sex, lies, greed, perversion, murder, deceit, infidelity, drugs, sex, immorality, scatology, ambition, equivocation, character assassination, slander, blasphemy, aspersion, betrayal, distortion, racism, ungodliness, sodomy-- and that's just the critics of Mapplethorpe."
by Anonymous | reply 83 | December 5, 2017 10:26 PM |
R80, you should go to Sad Grammar Jail.
This is my favorite Patti Smith...
by Anonymous | reply 84 | December 7, 2017 2:10 AM |
He gifted a few prints to Fran Lebowitz, but she thought they were of not much value and threw them out one time she moved homes. Yes, she regrets is.
by Anonymous | reply 85 | December 7, 2017 3:35 AM |
Besides the weird doppleganger relationship (they were like psychic twins) with Patti Smith, Mapplethorpe had a couple of other important relationships. The true love of his life was said to be Milton Moore, a very mentally disturbed black man from a poor background. Mapplethorpe thought he was a "perfect" specimen, his ideal black lover. It's Moore's cock hanging out of his fly in "Man In A Polyester Suit." Mapplethorpe was besotted with him, but looked down on him because he was black. He called Moore "a primitive" and Moore said Mapplethorpe viewed him as though he were 'a monkey in a zoo." The relationship was doomed of course. But it really was as close to true love (on Mapplethorpe's part, anyway) love as Mapplethorpe could get.
His other big relationship was with Sam Wagstaff. A handsome, rich, much older art collector, he became enamored of Mapplethorpe and became his Sugar Daddy. After his death (of AIDS) he left the majority of his fortune to Mapplethorpe.Mapplethorpe once said to Wagstaff that he loved him "as much as I can." Which really wasn't that much; Mapplethorpe was probably too self absorbed to really love anybody.
by Anonymous | reply 86 | December 7, 2017 2:42 PM |
Those black men that allowed themselves to be in a relationship with someone like Mapplethorpe. Is a fucking embarrassment and weak minded on their parts. I really hate black men like that. The ones who will put up with anything from "white lovers" for whatever reason. I know this isn't true of all black men. But I know plenty who won't date or have sex with white men anymore. Because of reasons presented by Mapplethorpe. No one wants to be a fetish. Especially not to a white men or women. it's degrading and dehumanizing in general and there's also historical context to it. I'm happy some have woken up. But we'll also always have a handful of lost negros who don't care. And just want what they want. As sad as that is it's the truth.
by Anonymous | reply 87 | December 7, 2017 4:26 PM |
He had a thing for foreskins.
by Anonymous | reply 88 | December 7, 2017 4:29 PM |
No one wants to say that Mapplethorpe was mentally ill? He was.
by Anonymous | reply 89 | December 8, 2017 9:14 PM |
He and his brother have that WASPy cold blue eyed look.
by Anonymous | reply 90 | December 8, 2017 10:52 PM |
"No one wants to say that Mapplethorpe was mentally ill? He was."
Maybe people don't say because it doesn't need to be said. That photo of him with a whip up his ass screams mental illness.
by Anonymous | reply 91 | December 12, 2017 2:34 PM |
He never impressed me one way or another. I was a disco hater then, and figured that anyone who liked disco would probably like him. I basically ignored both (to the degree possible in NY in the '70s).
by Anonymous | reply 92 | December 12, 2017 2:40 PM |
I was always impressed how he could evoke blue in his bw photos.
by Anonymous | reply 93 | December 12, 2017 3:31 PM |
Matt Smith is playing him in a movie biopic. I hope its not another pandering gay film with little actual gayness in it. There is no Jack Walls credit on IMDB.
by Anonymous | reply 94 | December 12, 2017 3:39 PM |
I knew him when he transitioned from Bobby to Bob, to Rob to Robert. He wasn't particularly nice to begin with, but he got less pleasant with each name change. As an art student, he was only averagely gifted, but he quickly developed a remarkable talent for shameless self-promotion. he saw everything as a competition, yet his ability to garner positive attention was never enough. He had to win, whatever the cost. He was consumed by petty jealousies, an unerring ability to find others' Achilles heels, a taste for the jugular, and enjoyed criticizing anyone and everyone he perceived as a threat. The more fragile and sensitive his targets, the more brutal his assaults; on the other hand, like a feral animal, he tended to be thin-skinned, whiny, cowardly and poisonously venomous when confronted.
Not surprisingly, he had few admirers and an understandably small number of friends. Those few he had, like Patti Smith, were specifically chosen because they were easily manipulated. Sadly, like worn out, broken tools, they were callously discarded when they ceased to be of use. A reading between the likes of "Just Kids" exposes him for exactly who he was in his youth, and Smith as his still unwitting victim.
No one who knew Mapplethorpe was in any way surprised by his unsubstantiated rise, and even less so by his inevitable fall.
by Anonymous | reply 95 | December 12, 2017 3:55 PM |
To me the question of whether or not Mapplethorpe is any good is partly whether or not you're still debating if photography is high art. I know he has his skeptics and you could argue he's a button pusher but as a body of work it's pretty memorable. It's not every photographer whose work is instantly recognizable as his is.
by Anonymous | reply 96 | December 12, 2017 6:29 PM |
He was still an asshole.
by Anonymous | reply 97 | December 12, 2017 6:35 PM |
[QUOTE] I was a disco hater then, and figured that anyone who liked disco would probably like him.
What an odd connection. Why would you think that? He seemed more Laurie Anderson and Talking Heads to me.
by Anonymous | reply 98 | December 12, 2017 7:13 PM |
"his inevitable fall" you mean his death from AIDS R95- was that his punishment, his "fall" for being as bad as you say? Wonder what you have done with your life? Is your work going to be hung in the great museums of the world for the foreseeable future. Or are you like Mayor Giuliani and want to censure him because you think his work was/is pornography?
Who cares if he was nice- he was an artist- big time and pushed photography in directions that it had never been. FYI, Picasso was an even bigger asshole. I understand he was pretty good too!
by Anonymous | reply 99 | December 12, 2017 7:36 PM |
r98 I knew who he was before I knew about Talking Heads, whose first LP, '77, I bought in '77. I don't think I heard of Laurie Anderson until the '80s.
by Anonymous | reply 100 | December 12, 2017 7:42 PM |
I’m not disputing it, it’s just seemed odd to me. Disco was so superficial and he was an artist plus friends with Patti Smith. I wonder if disco was played at the Mineshaft, or at any of the fisting/scat/Satanism parties he attended.
by Anonymous | reply 101 | December 12, 2017 8:10 PM |
Happily for most of us, his more outre pastimes are only interesting in photographs and not in the way the Giuliani's of the world see it. Yes, he owes a lot to his brother's print work.
I found R95's excellent post to be absolutely compelling regarding Bobby, Bob, Rob and Robert but I kept seeing someone else in this passage:
[quote] only averagely gifted, but he quickly developed a remarkable talent for shameless self-promotion. he saw everything as a competition, yet his ability to garner positive attention was never enough. He had to win, whatever the cost. He was consumed by petty jealousies, an unerring ability to find others' Achilles heels, a taste for the jugular, and enjoyed criticizing anyone and everyone he perceived as a threat. The more fragile and sensitive his targets, the more brutal his assaults; on the other hand, like a feral animal, he tended to be thin-skinned, whiny, cowardly and poisonously venomous when confronted. Not surprisingly, he had few admirers and an understandably small number of friends.
Guess who?
by Anonymous | reply 102 | February 20, 2018 3:36 AM |
I remember taking an art class in college during which Mapplethorpe was discussed. The sexual images - cocks, the bullwhip up the ass photo, among others - garnered a lot of discussion about what it was supposed to represent and whether or not it was shocking.
I think if I took the same class today, I'd probably laugh. If I had grown up on plentiful internet porn with millions of images of anything I could imagine and in an era where people kill and rape people on Facebook Live, I'd just think Mapplethorpe's photos were stupid, try-hard and utterly not shocking in any way.
by Anonymous | reply 105 | February 20, 2018 3:52 AM |
A lot of his work looks like upscale, glossy gay men's interior design of the 80s. Cold and haughty.
by Anonymous | reply 106 | February 20, 2018 3:55 AM |
Well, he clearly has plenty of detractors everywhere (not just at DL). From an artistic perspective - I think that it is hard to really stand out in the photography realm (I have a few favorites, but they are few and far between). He did stand out and always will. The subject matter might have garnered headlines and the racy nature garnered venom and press, but his skill with tone, color (or lack thereof), composition and "energy" (hard to verbalize) have cemented him into that small handful of greats from his era and perhaps of all time. Most accounts say that he was a vile human being - but he was a talented one. His work continues to memorize and delight so his legacy will remain and likely grow in momentum.
by Anonymous | reply 107 | February 20, 2018 6:22 AM |
The portraits are pretty amazing. i love this self-portrait of him--so different from most of his self-portraits, which always showed him tough and in leather.
by Anonymous | reply 108 | February 20, 2018 6:29 AM |
if u read his bios, apparently without the support and $$ of his bf/mentor/s daddy, Sam Flagstaff, he would still have been a low life in the scumbag bars of nyc
his insatiable need for kink and drugs led him to death....
sad
funny how some artists become famous/desirable by collectors through fame and its tentacles of publicity..
good god his work was ok at best.
O SUCH PRETTY FLOWERS
by Anonymous | reply 109 | February 20, 2018 6:30 AM |
Also, i've always loved this portrait of Francesca Thyssen
by Anonymous | reply 111 | February 20, 2018 6:34 AM |
He sounds like a cross between Michael Alig and Andrew Cunanan.
And no R99, you can't compare Mapplethorpe with Picasso bc Picasso actually had talent.
by Anonymous | reply 112 | February 20, 2018 10:00 AM |
What R5 said. He had a great eye but he was also a bit verkakt.
by Anonymous | reply 113 | February 20, 2018 10:49 AM |
[quote] As an art student, he was only averagely gifted, but he quickly developed a remarkable talent for shameless self-promotion. he saw everything as a competition, yet his ability to garner positive attention was never enough. He had to win, whatever the cost. He was consumed by petty jealousies, an unerring ability to find others' Achilles heels, a taste for the jugular, and enjoyed criticizing anyone and everyone he perceived as a threat. The more fragile and sensitive his targets, the more brutal his assaults; on the other hand, like a feral animal, he tended to be thin-skinned, whiny, cowardly and poisonously venomous when confronted.
Not surprisingly, he had few admirers and an understandably small number of friends. Those few he had, like Patti Smith, were specifically chosen because they were easily manipulated. Sadly, like worn out, broken tools, they were callously discarded when they ceased to be of use.
So, a textbook sociopath. And like many sociopaths, met an early end due to ceaseless thrill-seeking.
by Anonymous | reply 114 | February 20, 2018 6:19 PM |
I really don't get Patti Smith either.
by Anonymous | reply 115 | February 20, 2018 6:53 PM |
Mapplethorpe owes A LOT to his brother's printing techniques. Beyond taking the photos and fucking his subjects, Mapplethorpe wasn't much interested in photography. He's wildly overrated.
I agree wit the person upthread who stated if Mapplethorpe had been working in the age of the Internet, he would have never been deemed 'shocking'. Right place, right time, nothing more. Besides, his soft focus technique was already being used by many other photographers in the 1970s, especially by fashion/celeb photographer Norman Seeff, who shot many iconic rock music images, such as a Carly Simon's "Playing Possum" LP cover and his portraits of Fleetwood Mac. The only difference was, Mapplethorpe shot explicit sexual photos, nothing more.
by Anonymous | reply 116 | February 20, 2018 6:55 PM |
Freddie Mercury wears a Mineshaft T-shirt in the video for Don't Stop Me Now.
by Anonymous | reply 117 | February 20, 2018 10:09 PM |
he got alot of mileage from his looks
and yes without flagstaff its unlikely his mediocre work wuld have caught on....
he was into the lowest/dirtiest sex u can imagine...
very heavy druggie.
ironic his work is revered...
the art world is a fickle thing
pic below is franco posing as mapplethorpe: hot pic of james huh...
by Anonymous | reply 118 | February 20, 2018 10:15 PM |
R70 - the lover’s name is Jack Fritscher. The book is good, even if Fritscher never misses an opportunity to tell us about his own many accomplishments and intellect.
The scat, satanism and so on struck me as the inevitable result of a time when people were pushing every boundary they could. Here in the UK I knew a bunch, albeit without rich mentors and mostly heterosexual, who experimented with similar taboos. It scared a few people on the periphery but mostly just hurt them in the long run and it took years to slough off the psychic/psychological damage confronting the abyss unremittingly will do.
I’m sure he wasn’t too pleasant a person. No one that ambitious can be. Whether he would have become so well known if he had not met Wagstaff *is moot. He would not have met Wagstaff and Wagstaff would not have become so enamoured if Mapplethorpe had not been exactly as he was.
In my early 20s I liked the photographs that shocked because they looked unblinkingly at subjects that were so taboo. Then I liked the formality of his work. Then I began to find it too cold. I changed, the work didn’t.
*Supposedly the cock full of pins is Wagstaff’s.
by Anonymous | reply 119 | February 20, 2018 10:35 PM |
his sick fotos gave us a bad name....
scat, etc
yuk
by Anonymous | reply 120 | February 20, 2018 10:39 PM |
Got to say I don’t really get this thing about ‘his fall’ or about his photos giving us a bad name.
He died of a disease that came along when his, and others, sexual behaviour at the time meant they were exceptionally vulnerable to the disease. Disease has no morality though some may ascribe it as such. If the disease came along later or never happened at all he could well have lived a long life or been murdered in his bed by an anonymous pick up. If he hadn’t become so famous and had not made certain photographs would his death still be a ‘fall’.
It was simply a death. We all get one.
And we have always had a bad name and still do in certain circles. We are fallen in their eyes.
Jeez, I’m getting serious. Better get my hot chocolate and get to bed.
by Anonymous | reply 122 | February 20, 2018 10:51 PM |
photographs are fine enough. Shock value was his currency.
by Anonymous | reply 123 | February 20, 2018 11:33 PM |
Interesting thread. True, if he hadn’t been s social climber and found Wagstaff, we would not know his work. But I think it’s important to keep in mind the time when his work came to the forefront. It was boldly gay in a way that had not been seen before. I’ll always admire that. It took guts on some level.
On a different note, I once saw Patti Smith crossing the street in anew stork and did a slight double take because she looked familiar. She gave me the biggest stink eye I ever saw. Never liked her after that.
by Anonymous | reply 124 | February 20, 2018 11:41 PM |
R124 Well, to be fair, it must have been difficult crossing the street with a large bird in her arms....
by Anonymous | reply 125 | February 20, 2018 11:56 PM |
I always liked Patti Smith's song Frederic, but it borrowed a big chunk from Bruce Springsteen. She's a pretentious twat though.
I don't have a problem when people push boundaries in art and sex. I like some of the pics Mapplethorpe did.
by Anonymous | reply 126 | February 20, 2018 11:59 PM |
Oh look! Datalounge tears apart another out gay man.
by Anonymous | reply 127 | February 21, 2018 12:13 AM |
Patti did her best to glorify him in her book. I also thought his flowers were beautiful. I can't imagine anybody putting the fist fucking/bull whip photos up on their walls.
by Anonymous | reply 128 | February 21, 2018 12:25 AM |
I love his art. No, I would not hang the extreme stuff in my living room - but I would kill to own and display it in more private spaces (bedroom, study, etc.). I love his "fetish" work that is non-sexual - the stiletto heals for example. He was a gifted photographer - the unique tones and sharp focus counterbalanced with the erie, ethereal skin tones of his black and white portraits are haunting. He created a genre and did it best. Nuff said.
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