Robert Mapplethorpe Lisa Lyon, 1983 silver gelatine print 50.8 x 40.6 cm, 20 x 16 ins
Copyright Robert Mapplethorpe Foundation, New York
To coincide with what would have been the 70th birthday of the iconic American photographer Robert Mapplethorpe, Alison Jacques has invited acclaimed UK-based, German-born photographer Juergen Teller to curate an exhibition of Mapplethorpe’s work. Teller worked in collaboration with The Robert Mapplethorpe Foundation in New York to make his selection.
Considered ?one? of the most important photographers of ?the 20th century, ?Robert Mapplethorpe is currently the subject of a major touring retrospective The Perfect Medium, which opened at the J.Paul Getty Museum and Los Angeles County Museum of Art (LACMA), Los Angeles ?in 2016. ?The exhibition is currently ?on view ?at the Montreal Museum of Fine Arts, Canada ?(?until 22 January 2017?)?? and will travel to the Art Gallery of New South Wales, Sydney, Australia (October 2017 – February 2018). Mapplethorpe is also the subject of a recently released, Emmy nominated, HBO documentary Look at the Pictures (2016).
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With the permission of The Robert Mapplethorpe Foundation, Teller has enlarged two images, each over 4 metres in scale, which, pasted directly onto the gallery’s walls will provide a backdrop to the entire show. One wall will show Mapplethorpe’s first partner David Croland wearing a gag and the other features the model Marty Gibson from Mapplethorpe’s later work posing nude on a beach.
Teller’s selection of 58 images exposes works within Mapplethorpe’s archive that have rarely been exhibited before and span Mapplethorpe’s entire career, ranging from the unique Polaroids of the early 1970s to his iconic medium of silver gelatin photographs from the mid-70s through to the late 80s.
Still life features as a prominent theme with unusual subjects includ?ing a banana with keys, a set of antique silverware, two coconuts, a television set, and poppies in a glass vase with their buds still tightly closed. Teller has also chosen a number of images depicting animals, a subject matter that Mapplethorpe is not famously associated with, including a hanging bat, plate of frogs, reclining dog, kitten on a sofa, and horses.
Robert Mapplethorpe Frogs, 1984 Silver Gelatin Print
50.8 x 40.6 cm – 20 x 16 ins 73.3 x 60.1 x 3 cm – 28 7/8 x 23 5/8 x 1 1/8 ins framed Copyright Robert Mapplethorpe Foundation, New York. Used by Permission
Human subjects include some of Mapplethorpe’s key female muses such as Lisa Lyon, but also lesser-known personalities including Cookie Mueller, Gisele Freud and Susan Sarandon’s daughter, Eva Amurri, as a small child. Well-known people in Mapplethorpe’s life are represented including Patti Smith, David Croland and Sam Wagstaff. Teller has also responded to his own German heritage and selected lesser-known portraits of German figures of the time including the artist Gerhard Merz and the actors Peter Chatel and Udo Kier.
Sexually-explicit images also feature in the exhibition but by interrelating these to a more romantic view of Mapplethorpe’s work, Teller has brought out the essential mission of Mapplethorpe’s work: a life-long quest for perfection of form whatever the subject matter may be.
Teller On Mapplethorpe Alison Jacques Gallery 18th November 2016 – 7th January 2017 Private view Thursday 17th November www.alisonjacquesgallery.com
