Mapplethorpe Art Controversy
But provocation was also typical of art of the late 1970s and 1980s as seen in work by performance artist karen finley and by mapplethorpe s fellow photographers serrano peter hujar and nan.
Mapplethorpe art controversy. The whole point of art is to encourage audiences to look at life in a new way. The artist created a sculpture consisting of two. November 4 1946 march 9 1989 was an american photographer best known for his black and white photographs his work featured an array of subjects including celebrity portraits male and female nudes self portraits and still life images his most controversial works documented and examined the homosexual male bdsm subculture.
Robert michael mapplethorpe ˈ m eɪ p əl ˌ θ ɔːr p. This sculpture is one of the only surviving artworks from his first exhibition outside of school in 1970 titled clothing as art at the chelsea hotel. In 1989 the year he succumbed to aids the corcoran gallery of art in washington d c canceled an exhibition of mapplethorpe s work that included photographs of anal fisting and naked children.
Names like marina abramović judy chicago bill henson and robert mapplethorpe among many others have been. When mapplethorpe died of complications from aids in 1989 he was a successful artist with commercial and art world cachet but he wasn t yet a household name. Mapplethorpe who died of aids related complications at the age of just 42 is currently the subject of a major exhibition at the grand palais in paris which aims to strip away the controversy.
