ROBERT MAPPLETHORPE

INTRODUCTION OF WORKS

• Self Portrait, 1985, photograph, silver gelatin print on paper

38.7 x 38.7 cm | 15 1/8 x 15 1/8 in
Robert Mapplethorpe (b. 1946 New York; d. 1989 Boston) was an
acclaimed photographer, most noted for his black and white portraits of
celebrities, flowers, as well as female and male nudes. Initially creating
collages using found photographs, objects, and painting, Mapplethorpe
turned to photography in the early 1970s; through which—using a
Polaroid SX-70 camera—he quickly became known for the portraits he
took of his wide circle of friends, including famous artists, musicians,
porn stars, and socialites. Mapplethorpe’s diverse oeuvre—homoerotic
images, floral still-life photographs, pictures of children, commissioned
portraits, and mixed-media sculpture—is united by the consistency of his
approach and technique. Mapplethorpe’s photographs offer a seemingly
endless gradation of blacks and whites, shadow and light. Regardless of
their specific subject, his images combine both provocation and elegance.

Mapplethorpe participated in Documenta in 1977 and 1982. His work

has been shown in solo exhibitions worldwide, including the LACMA
and J. Paul Getty Museum (2016), Musée des Beaux-Arts de Montréal
(2016), Museum of Contemporary Art Kiasma (2015), Tate Modern
(2008; 2014), Grand Palais (2014), Modern Art Oxford (2009), Whitney
Museum of American Art (2008), MoMA P.S.1 (2006; 2008), the National
Museum in Stockholm (2007), the Salomon R. Guggenheim Museum
(2005), Museo Reina Sofía (2006), the Tel Aviv Museum of Art (2004),
FRAC, Paris (2003). His work can be found in numerous public collections,
including the Art Institute of Chicago, Australian National Gallery, Boston
Museum of Fine Arts, the Corcoran Gallery of Art in Washington D.C.,
Dallas Museum of Fine Arts, Frankfurter Kunstverein, Hara Museum
of Contemporary Art, the International Center of Photography in New
York, Israel Museum, Madison Art Center, the Metropolitan Museum
of Art, Museum Ludwig, the Museum of Fine Arts in Houston, MoMA,
New Orleans Museum of Art, Centre Georges Pompidou, SFMOMA,
Stedelijk Museum, Victoria & Albert Museum. Shortly before his untimely
death, Mapplethorpe established The Robert Mapplethorpe Foundation,
dedicated to the promotion of his work and to funding medical research
in the fight against HIV/AIDS.

Friends and Acquaintances
Exhibition at Galerie Thomas
2,3 Schulte, 2011
PORTRAITS
While Mapplethorpe’s images of the male and female body are associated
with ideals of beauty, his portraits are expressions of the identity and
individuality of the respective sitter.
In one of the four portraits that Robert Mapplethorpe took of Andy
Warhol during his lifetime, Warhol is seen leaning his right shoulder
against the same white wall, his whole body facing the camera, with his
hands held rather stiffly in front of him. Although this head shot focuses
more intently on Warhol’s face, the artist also wears the same blank,
uninterested expression in the other photographs from the shoot.
In his famous portrait of the French-American artist Louise Bour-
geois she is shown from her waist up with her body in three quarter
profile, and her face turned towards the camera. She has one of her
sculptures tucked under her arm, holding it in place with her hand.
This phallic shaped sculpture, Fillette, which translates as “little girl”
in French, is a plaster work covered in latex, which was made fourteen
years earlier. Bourgeois smiles somewhat mischievously at the camera.
Like Mapplethorpe, Bourgeois often made art that was sexually explicit
and she identified with the connection made between Mapplethorpe
and herself.
Amidst the many portraits that Mapplethorpe took, a special role
is played by singer-songwriter Patti Smith, whom Mapplethorpe por-
trayed multiple times during their lifelong friendship. Indeed, apart
from his self-portraits, Smith was Mapplethorpe’s most photographed
subject. In 1988, Mapplethorpe also shot the cover for Smith’s album
Dream of Life.

Andy Warhol, 1983

Photograph, gelatin silver print
on paper
4,5 47.6 x 37.7 cm | 18 13/16 x 14 7/8 in
Meredith Monk, 1988
Photograph, gelatin silver print on paper
37.2 x 37.4 cm | 14 2/3 x 14 2/3 in

Philipp Glass and Robert Wilson, 1976

Photograph, gelatin silver print on paper
34.1 x 34.1 cm | 13 2/5 x 13 2/5 in

Louise Bourgeois, 1982

Photograph, silver gelatin print on paper
37.5 x 37.4 cm | 14 2/3 x 14 2/3 in 6,7
Susan Sontag, 1984 Truman Capote, 1981
Photograph, silver gelatin print on paper Photograph, silver gelatin print on paper
34.9 × 34.9 cm | 13 3/4 × 13 3/4 in 8,9 38 x 38 cm | 15 x 15 in
Francesca Thyssen, 1981 Patti Smith, 1978
Photograph, gelatin silver print on paper Photograph, gelatin silver print on paper
50.8 x 40.6 cm | 20 x 16 in 10,11 47.7 x 37.6 cm | 18 13/16 x 14 7/8 in
SELF-PORTRAITS
Within the genre of the portrait, the self portrait is perhaps the most
complex sub-category, because it brings the artist and the sitter into one
with the allure of a private diary. Historically, the self-portrait is linked
to artistic identity, experimentation with techniques and autobiography.
Mapplethorpe’s self-portraits contain all of these elements: his early po-
laroids are his first experiments with the self-portrait and his exploration
of photography; his works from the late 1970s to the mid 1980s sur-
vey different personas and ideas of identity, while his late self-portraits
are more autobiographical and concerned with questions of existence.
In his self-portraits Mapplethorpe takes on different personas, includ-
ing knife-wielding hoodlum, a revolutionary and ultimate bad-boy. He
also took on the personas of devil, sexual-provocateur and transvestite
amongst others; all expressions of the different facets of his identity.
In 1986, Mapplethorpe was diagnosed with AIDS, the syndrome
caused by HIV. The HIV/AIDS pandemic was one of the most significant
international events in the 1980s and had affected the lives of many in
Mapplethorpe’s immediate circle. At the time, most of those diagnosed
with the disease did not survive more than two years. Mapplethorpe’s
self-portraiture towards the end of his life reflected his diminishing health,
his search for catharsis and his mortality.
In a late self-portrait from 1988, Mapplethorpe is seated facing
straight ahead, as if he were looking death in the face—as if he were
confronting it. The skull-headed cane that he holds in his right hand
reinforces this reading. Mapplethorpe is wearing black, so that his head
floats free, disembodied, surrounded by darkness. Using a shallow depth
of field, Mapplethorpe photographs his head very slightly out of focus,
perhaps to suggest his gradual fading away.

Pictures / Self Portrait, 1977
Photograph, silver gelatin print
on paper
12,13 35.2 x 34.6 cm | 13 7/8 x 13 5/8 in
Self Portrait, 1988 Self Portrait, 1973
Photograph, gelatin silver print on paper Photograph, gelatin silver print on paper
57.7 x 48.1 cm | 22 3/4 x 19 in 14,15 47.6 × 37.5cm | 18 4/5 × 14 11/16 in
Self Portrait, 1983
Photograph, silver gelatin print on paper
37.4 x 37.5 cm | 14 2/3 x 14 2/3 in

Self Portrait, 1980

Photograph, silver gelatin print on paper
35.2 x 35.2 cm | 13 1/2 x 13 1/2 in 16,17
FETISH AND S&M
Robert Mapplethorpe was gay and actively engaged in New York’s S&M
scene. During the mid to late 1970s, he frequented many gay bars and clubs
in the Meatpacking district of New York City including the Mineshaft, at
the time considered the “definitive S&M club.” Through his photographs
Mapplethorpe intended to bestow dignity and beauty upon a subject that
was considered outside accepted norms of behaviour.
In the portrait of Nick Biens, whom Robert Mapplethorpe met in 1977,
Biens sits in three-quarter profile with his head turned to face the camera.
He is topless but holds his studded leather jacket, which is slung over his
left shoulder, with clasped hands. The top of his leather trousers and a
metallic belt can be seen at the bottom edge of the image. Biens wears a
strong yet sullen expression and boasts a dark, trimmed beard and two
visible tattoos: a flaming skull on his forehead and a profile head and neck
of a man wearing a leather cap on his left bicep. He casts a shadow on the
white wall behind him that emphasises his square jaw.
While Mapplethorpe was particularly interested in taking photo-
graphs of sadomasochistic sexual practices, he also portrayed the indi-
viduals who practised them. The latter were considered relatively tame
in S&M circles, and Biens himself referred to them as being an “artsified
version of S&M.” However, some, especially the thirteen pictures selected
by Mapplethorpe for his X-portfolio, also showed individuals involved in
actual S&M scenes.

Patrice, NYC (detail), 1977

Photograph, silver gelatin print
on paper
18,19 34.3 x 34.3 cm | 13 1/2 x 13 1/2 in

Clothespinned Mouth, 1978 Nick, 1977
Photograph, silver gelatin print on paper Photograph, silver gelatin print on paper
34 × 34.1 cm | 13 1/2 x 13 1/2 in 20,21 34.1 × 34.2 cm | 13 1/2 x 13 1/2 in
Joe, NYC, 1978
Photograph, silver gelatin print on paper
34.3 x 34.3 cm | 13 1/2 x 13 1/2 in

Helmut, NYC, 1978

Photograph, silver gelatin print on paper
34.1 × 34.2 cm | 13 1/2 x 13 1/2 in

Brian Ridley and Lyle Heeter, 1979

Photograph, silver gelatin print on paper
34.1 × 34.1 cm | 13 1/2 x 13 1/2 in 22,23
FLOWERS
In color or black-and-white, Robert Mapplethorpe’s flowers again and
again play the role of seduction, an embrace, an orgasm. As though
the subject had never been fully exhausted, the artist appropriates
the codes of a traditional artistic genre, to better spin the metaphor:
formal perfection of the staging, absolute mastery of the play of light
and shadow, clinical precision of the framing... everything happens
as though still life had reached its most accomplished expression. It
is far from the exercise of style à la Edward Steichen, the botanical
exaltation à la Imogen Cunningham, or the scientific compilation à la
Karl Blossfeldt.
Here, the flower is only a pretext: “I love my flower photos more
than I love real flowers.” Narcissus is the reflection of Narcissus that
Mapplethorpe contemplates in these anthropomorphic petals. His
nature photography is a major contrast to his usual leather- and chain-
clad subjects, and critics praised his ability to bring sex appeal to any
subject—no matter how ordinary it may seem, since in art, a flower is
never just a flower. They are symbols, like the 17th Century Flemish
still-lifes depicting banquets and bouquets that were not only com-
memorations of luxuries; they were a memento mori, a reminder that
every flower lilts and all feasts come to an end.

Flower Arrangement, 1984

Platinum print on paper
24,25 59.5 x 49.5 cm | 23 1/2 x 19 1/2 in
Gardenia, 1987 Tulips, 1988
Photograph, silver gelatin print on paper Photograph, silver gelatin print on paper
48.8 x 48.8 cm | 19 1/4 x 19 1/4 in 26,27 48.8 x 48.8 cm | 19 1/4 x 19 1/4 in
Calla Lilies, 1985 Tuberose, 1977
Photograph, gelatin silver print on paper Photograph, gelatin silver print on paper
50.8 x 40.6 cm | 20 x 16 in 28,29 34.3 x 34.3 cm | 13 1/2 x 13 1/2 in
Double Jack in the Pulpit, 1988
Photograph, Dye-transfer print on paper
56.5 x 57.1 cm | 22 1/4 x 22 31/64 in

Bird of Paradise, 1979

Photograph, silver gelatin print on paper
35.1 × 35.5 cm | 13 13/16 × 14 in

Orchid, 1986
Photograph, silver gelatin print on paper
48.9 x 48.7 cm | 19 1/4 x 19 3/16 in 30,31
MALE NUDES
While the portrait is associated with identity and individuality, images
of the body are associated with ideals of beauty. Robert Mapplethorpe’s
male nudes demonstrate the artist’s concern for portraying the sculp-
tural beauty of the human form. Balance and harmony are thus key to
Mapplethorpe’s nudes. The artist consciously composes the images to
emphasise their structure and geometry. The contrasts of light and shade
appear to give the sitter’s body the permanence and lustre of a classical
bronze statue.
Mapplethorpe’s sitters were often athletic men including models,
dancers and bodybuilders, all with muscular and well-defined bodies.
The images include photographs of fragmented bodies—a torso, an
extended arm, buttocks and thighs. Mapplethorpe once stated: “I zero in
on the body part that I consider the most perfect part in that particular
model.”
According to his biographer, Patricia Morrisroe, Mapplethorpe began
to photograph black men around 1979. As Morrisroe writes, the artist
found that “he could extract a greater richness from the colour of their
skin.” In particular, the tonal range between the highlights and the shad-
ows was more dramatic. Mapplethorpe’s decision to photograph black men
made him more particular about the quality of his photographic prints
than he had previously been. Taking a cue from classical sculpture, he
expected black skin to approximate the colour of bronze and instructed
his printer to selectively darken his pictures accordingly.

Torso (Donald Cann) (detail), 1982

Photograph, silver gelatin print
on paper
32,33 48.7 × 38.8 cm | 19 3/16 × 15 1/4 in
Phillip, 1979
Photograph, silver gelatin print on paper
35 x 36 cm | 13 13/16 x 14 1/4 in

Phillip, 1979
Photograph, silver gelatin print on paper
36 x 35 cm | 14 1/4 x 13 13/16 in 34,35
Marty Gibson, 1982
Photograph, silver gelatin print on paper
39 x 38 cm | 15 5/16 x 15 in

Bill Joulis, 1977

Photograph, silver gelatin print on paper
35 x 35.5 cm | 13 13/16 x 14 in

Tony Hill, 1978

Photograph, silver gelatin print on paper
35.5 x 35 cm | 14 x 13 13/16 in 36,37

Ken Moody and Robert Sherman, 1984 Daniel, N.Y.C., 1979
Photograph, silver gelatin print on paper Photograph, silver gelatin print on paper
49.4 × 50.2 cm | 19 7/16 × 19 3/4 in 38,39 19.1 × 18.9 cm | 7 1/2 × 7 7/16 in
SCULPTURES
Although he had studied painting and sculpture at the Pratt Institute in
Brooklyn until 1970, it was in photography that Robert Mapplethorpe gave
substance to his fantasies of matter. In an interview published in 1988, he
mused: “If I had been born a hundred or two hundred years ago, I would
probably have been a sculptor, but photography is a quick way of seeing
and sculpting.”
Influenced by the Italian masters of the Cinquecento—one thinks in
particular of The Slave (1974), an explicit homage to Michelangelo’s Dying
Slave (1513)—in his early days, Mapplethorpe sublimated the canonical
plastic arts through the athlete Ken Moody, the dancer Derrick Cross, and
the bodybuilder Lisa Lyon, in compositions flirting with trompe l’oeil: The
energetic postures adopted by his models, the outrageous contraction of
their muscles, still underlined by a clear obscure scholar, celebrate the
sculptural quality of the nude form.
At the end of his career, Mapplethorpe returned to the glorified
divinities of his personal pantheon: Eros, Mercury, Hermes... as though,
through the images of ancient statues, he was seeking to ensure his
posterity in the great history of art.

Installation at Museo Madre,

40,41 Naples, 2019
Pan Head, 1977 Sleeping Cupid, 1988
Photograph, silver gelatin print on paper Photograph, silver gelatin print on paper
35.6 × 35.2 cm | 14 × 13 7/8 in 42,43 48.9 x 48.9 cm | 19 11/16 x 19 11/16 in
FEMALE NUDES
In 1980, Robert Mapplethorpe met Lisa Lyon, the first World Women’s
Body Building Champion. They worked together over the next few years
creating various portraits and figure studies including both full and frag-
mented body images. In these photographs, which were published in a
book in 1983, Lady: Lisa Lyon, Lyon took on different guises and played
with the idea of different “types“ of women, depicting stereotypical fem-
ininity alongside rippling muscles and body hair. Commenting on their
collaboration in an interview, Mapplethorpe once stated: “Lisa Lyon re-
minded me of Michelangelo’s subjects, because he did muscular women.”
Another important model whom Mapplethorpe captured repeatedly
was Patti Smith. Both Patti Smith and Lisa Lyon could be described as
androgynous and allowed Mapplethorpe to explore gender stereotypes
and the intermediate space between femininity and masculinity.

Lisa Lyon, 1981

Photograph, silver gelatin print
on paper
46,47 45.1 × 35 cm | 17 3/4 × 13 3/4 in
Lisa Lyon, 1980 Lisa Lyon, 1982
Photograph, silver gelatin print on paper Photograph, silver gelatin print on paper
40.6 x 50.8 cm | 16 x 20 in 48,49 38.4 × 38 cm | 15 1/8 × 14 15/16 in
Lisa Lyon, 1982 Lisa Lyon, 1982
Photograph, silver gelatin print on paper Photograph, silver gelatin print on paper
38.3 × 38.5 cm | 15 1/16 × 15 3/16 in 50,51 38.2 × 38.5 cm | 15 1/16 × 15 3/16 in
BIOGRAPHY WORKS IN PUBLIC COLLECTIONS
Born The Art Institute of Chicago, USA
1946 in Floral Park (Queens), New York, USA Australian National Gallery, Canberra, Australia
Bank of America Collection, San Francisco, USA
Died Boston Museum of Fine Arts, USA
1989 in Boston, USA Center for Creative Photography, University of Arizona, USA
Chase Manhattan Bank Collection, New York, USA
Education Chrysler Museum, Norfolk, USA
1963-70 Pratt Institute Brooklyn, New York, USA Corcoran Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C., USA
Dallas Museum of Fine Arts, USA
Key biographical dates Frankfurter Kunstverein, Frankfurt, Germany
1967 befriends Patti Smith George Eastman House, Rochester, New York, USA
1971 becomes aquainted with John McKendry, Curator of Prints and Photography Guggenheim Museum, New York, USA
at the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York Hara Museum of Contemporary Art, Tokyo, Japan
1986 diagnosed with HIV/AIDS High Museum of Art, Atlanta, USA
1988 established the Robert Mapplethorpe Foundation International Center of Photography, New York, USA
Israel Museum, Jerusalem, Israel
La Jolla Museum of Contemporary Art, USA
Madison Art Center, USA
Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, USA
Museum Ludwig, Cologne, Germany
Museum of Art, Norman, USA
Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, USA
Museum of Modern Art, New York, USA
New Orleans Museum of Art, USA
Pompidou Centre, Paris, France
Portland Center for the Visual Arts, USA
San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, USA
Stedelijk Museum, Amsterdam, The Netherlands
Victoria & Albert Museum, London, England
Whitney Museum of American Art, New York, USA

52,53
SELECTED SOLO EXHIBITIONS 2011
2020 Galería Elvira González, Madrid, Spain
Robert Mapplethorpe Selected by Robert Wilson & XYZ Portfolios, Galerie Thomas Schulte, Berlin, Germany En Plein Air, Galerie Stefan Roepke, Cologne, Germany
50 Americans, Sean Kelly Gallery, New York, USA
2019 Friends and Acquaintances, Galerie Thomas Schulte, Berlin, Germany
Mapplethorpe, Salomon R. Guggenheim Museum, New York, USA Retrospektive, C/O Berlin, Berlin, Germany
Night Work (curated by Scissor Sisters), Alison Jacques Gallery, London, England
2018 Portraits, San Jose Museum of Art, San Jose, USA
Choreography for an Exhibition, Madre Museum, Naples, Italy
Pictures, Serralves Foundation Museum of Contemporary Art, Porto, Portugal 2010
Photography with Sculpture, Towner, Eastbourne, England
2017 Eros and Order, Malba - Fundación Costantini, Gallery 5, Buenos Aires, Argentina
Robert Mapplethorpe – a perfectionist, Kunsthal Rotterdam, Netherlands Eine Retrospektive, NRW-Forum Kultur und Wirtschaft, Düsseldorf, Germany
Objects, Galerie Thaddaeus Ropac, Paris, France
2009
2016 A Season in Hell, Alison Jacques Gallery, London, England
Galleri Brandstrup, Oslo, Norway Portraits: Robert Mapplethorpe, Center for Creative Photography, Tucson, USA
XYZ, Galerie Thaddaeus Ropac, Paris, France Centro de Arte Contemporáneo (CAC) de Málaga, Malaga, Spain
The Perfect Medium, LACMA & J. Paul Getty Museum, Los Angeles, USA Polaroids And Silver Prints In Context, Galerie Stefan Röpke, Cologne, Germany
Galleria Franco Noero, Turin, Italy Es Baluard Museu d’Art Modern i Contemporani de Palma, Palma de Mallorca, Spain
Focus: Perfection, Musée des Beaux-Arts Montréal, Canada TR3 Gallery and National Gallery, Ljubljana, Slovenia
The Perfection in Form, Galleria dell’Accademia, Florence, Italy
2015/16
After The Moment, CAC Lois & Richard Rosenthal Center for Contemporary Art, Cincinnati, USA 2008
The Magic in the Muse, The Bowes Museum, Durham, England Polaroids: Mapplethorpe, Whitney Museum of American Art, New York, USA; travelled to Modern Art, Oxford,
England; Henry Art Gallery, Seattle, USA
2015 Lisa, Milton, Thomas & Ken, Galerie Thaddaeus Ropac, Paris, France
Kiasma-Museum of Contemporary Art, Helsinki, Finland Robert Mapplethorpe - Works 1975-1988, Mai 36 Galerie, Zürich, Switzerland
Robert Miller Gallery, New York, USA
Galería Pepe Cobo, Lima, Peru 2007
Women, Galerie Stefan Röpke, Cologne, Germany
2014 VANITAS, Galería Pepe Cobo, Madrid, Spain
Sell the Public Flowers, Galerie Thomas Schulte, Berlin, Germany Robert Mapplethorpe’s Y Portfolio, MIT List Visual Arts Centre, Cambridge, USA
Photographs and Polaroids, Charles Riva Collection, Brussels, Belgium
Artist Rooms: Robert Mapplethorpe, Tate Modern, London, England 2006
The Grunwald Gallery of Art, Bloomington, USA Stadtgalerie Klagenfurt, Austria
Grand Palais, Paris, France Scottish National Gallery of Modern Art, Edinburgh, Scotland
Mapplethorpe-Rodin, Musée Rodin, Paris, France
2005
2012 Robert Mapplethorpe and the Classical Tradition, Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, New York, USA
PURE: Robert Mapplethorpe, Mai 36 Galerie, Zurich, Switzerland Neoclassicism, Sean Kelly, New York, USA
Ludwig Museum, Museum of Contemporary Art, Budapest, Hungary Allison Jacques Gallery, London
Xyz, Los Angeles County Museum of Art, Los Angeles, USA Tra Antico e Moderno, Una Antologia, Promotrice delle Belle Arti, Turin, Italy
In Focus: Robert Mapplethorpe, J. Paul Getty Museum, Los Angeles, USA Robert Mapplethorpe (curated by Hedi Slimane), Galerie Thaddaeus Ropac, Paris, France
Robert Mapplethorpe: Porträts und Erotik, Galerie Thaddaeus Ropac, Prien am Chiemsee, Germany
2011/12
Forma Foundation for Photography, Milan, Italy 2004
The Onassis Cultural Centre, Athens, Greece Pictures Pictures, Marc Selwyn Fine Art, Los Angeles, USA
Robert Mapplethorpe (curated by Sofia Coppola), Galerie Thaddaeus Ropac, Paris, France Robert Mapplethorpe and the Classical Tradition, Deutsche Guggenheim, Berlin, Germany
Nine Favourites, Galerie Thomas Schulte, Berlin
54,55
 2003 1995
Moscow State University, Moscow, Russia Robert Mapplethorpe Retrospective, WA Art Gallery, Perth, Australia
Eye to Eye: Robert Mapplethorpe selected by Cindy Sherman, Sean Kelly Gallery, New York, USA
Olga Korper Gallery, Toronto, Canada 1993/94
Robert Mapplethorpe: Sculptures and hand painted photographs, asperyjacques, London, England Museo Pecci, Prato, Italy
Flower Photographs, Baldwin Gallery, Aspen, USA
1992
2002 Mapplethorpe versus Rodin, Kunsthalle Dusseldorf, Dusseldorf, Germany
Flowers, Galerie Stefan Röpke, Cologne, Germany Louisiana Museum of Modern Art, Humlebaek, Denmark
Galerie Thomas Schulte, Berlin, Germany Museo de Monterrey, Monterrey, Mexico
Robert Mapplethorpe: The Portfolios, Xavier Hufkens, Brussel, Belgium Robert Mapplethorpe Retrospective, Tokyo Metropolitan Teien Art Museum, Tokyo; travelled to the Contem-
Robert Mapplethorpe Retrospective, Museum of Contemporary Art, Sapporo, Japan porary Art Gallery, Art Tower Mito, Ibaraki, Japan; the Museum of Kamakura; the Nagoya City Art Museum;
the Modern Art Museum of Shiya, USA
2001 I.C.A.C. Weston Gallery, Tokyo, Japan
Galerie Thaddaeus Ropac-Salzburg, Salzburg, Austria
Senior & Shopmaker, New York, USA 1991
Robert Mapplethorpe: Early Works, Robert Miller Gallery, New York, USA
2000 Galeria Weber, Alexander y Cobo, Madrid, Spain
Cheim& Read, New York, USA Lady, Ace Gallery, Los Angeles, USA
Aktionsforum Praterinsel, Munich, Germany Musee d’Art Contemporain, Fondation Edelman, Pully, Lausanne, Switzerland
Senior & Shopmaker, New York, USA Galerie Franck + Schulte, Berlin, Germany
Patricia Laligant Photography, New York, USA
Fifty One Fine Art Photography, Antwerpen, Netherlands 1990
Martina Hamilton Gallery, New York, USA
1999
Hamiltons Gallery, London, England 1989
Andrea Rosen, New York, USA Bridgewater/ Lustberg, New York, USA
Fay Gold Gallery, Atlanta, USA The Modernist Still Life-Photographed, University of Missouri-Kansas City, Kansas City, USA
Galerie Thomas Schulte, Berlin, Germany Betsy Rosenfield Gallery, Chicago, USA
Blum Helman, Los Angeles, Inc., Santa Monica, USA
1998 Sala D’Ercole di Palazzo D’Accursio, Bologna, Italy
Karen Mc Cready Fine Art, New York, USA Baudoin Lebon, Paris, France
Dorothy Blau Gallery, Inc., Miami, USA The Perfect Moment, Institute of Contemporary Arts, University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, USA; travelled
Cheim & Read, New York, USA to Museum of Contemporary Art, Chicago; Washington Project for the Arts, Washington D.C.; Wadsworth
Houldsworth Fine Art, London, England Athenum, Hartford; University Art Museum, University of California, Berkeley; Contemporary Arts Center,
Xavier Hufkens, Bruxelles, Belgium Cincinnati; Institute of Contemporary Art, Boston, USA

1997
Galley Galgano, Los Angeles, USA
Projects- Cortland- Jessup, New York, USA
Yancey Richardson, New York, USA
123 Watts, New York, USA
Staatsgalerie Stuttgart, Stuttgart, Germany
Rhona Hoffmann Gallery, Chicago, USA
Fay Gold Gallery, Atlanta, USA

1996
Children, Robert Miller Gallery, New York, USA
Galerie Stefan Röpke, Cologne, Germany
Gallery of Photography, Dublin, Ireland
Hayward Gallery on the South Bank, London, England 56,57
SELECTED GROUP EXHIBITIONS 2009
2019 Sterling Ruby & Robert Mapplethorpe, Xavier Hufkens, Brüssel
Studio Photography: 1887–2019, Simone Lee Gallery, New York, USA Something for Everyone, Hamiltons Gallery, London, England
Trust Me, Galerie Martin van Zomeren, Amsterdam, Netherlands
2018 Black Cube Gallery, Sant Antoni Maria Claret, Barcelona, Spain
DRAG: Self-portraits and Body Politics, Hayward Gallery, London, England Deadline, Musée d´Art Moderne de la Ville de Paris, MAM/ARC, Paris, France
Black & White, Museum Kunstpalast, Düssseldorf, Germany Shake It: An Instant History of the Polaroid, Pump House Gallery, London, England
Contemporary art is just easy as pie, Art Tower Mito ATM, Mito, Japan
2016 Big Shots: Andy Warhol, Celebrity Culture, and the 1980s, Spencer Museum of Art, Lawrence, USA
Warhol & Mapplethorpe: Guise & Dolls, Wadsworth Atheneum Museum of Art, Hartford, USA MESSIAHS, MODEM Centre for Modern and Contemporary Arts, Debrecen, Hungary
Mapplethorpe + Munch, Munchmuseet, Oslo, Norway Self-Portraits, Skarstedt Fine Art, New York, USA
Selected works from the r/e collection, Espacio artkunstarte, Galería Arnés y Röpke, Madrid, Spain Ingres et les modernes, Musée Ingres Montauban, France
The Figure and Dr. Freud, Haunch of Venison, New York, USA
2014/15 Das Portrait. Fotografie als Bühne, Kunsthalle Wien, Vienna, Austria
One Way: Peter Marino, Bass Museum of Art, Miami, USA Le Temps Emprunté / The borrowed time, Museum of Modern Art Dubrovnik, Croatia
Toward Abstraction: Photographs and Photograms, The de Young Museum San Francisco, USA
2014 Zum Strand / To the beach, Galerie Stefan Röpke, Cologne, Germany
Falling Into Darkness..., Galerie Stefan Röpke, Cologne, Germany Photo-OP, Russell Bowman Art Advisory, Chicago, IL, USA
A Inusitada, Museu de Arte de São Paulo Assis Chateaubriand, São Paulo, Brazil en todas as partes. políticas da diversidade sexual na arte, CGAC, Santiago de Compostela, Spain
Better With Age: Celebrating 35 Years, Corkin Gallery, Toronto, Canada sh[OUT]: Contemporary art and human rights, GoMA – Gallery of Modern Art, Glasgow, Scottland
Artificial Light: Flash Photography in the Twentieth Century, Philadelphia Museum of Art, USA Fatal Attraction: Diana and Actaeon – The Forbidden Gaze, Compton Verney, Warwickshire, England
la piel traslúcida. Obras de la colección Iberdrola, Torre Iberdrola, Bilbao, Spain The Fallen Angels, Watari Museum of Contemporary Art, Tokyo, Japan
Garden Party, Nassau County Museum of Art, Roslyn Harbor, New York, USA Fotofiesta, Galleri S.E., Bergen, Norway
1984?, Mai 36 Galerie, Zurich, Switzerland Tresures of Gay Art, The Leslie/Lohman Gay Art Foundation, New York, USA
Reproductibilitat 1.1, Es Baluard Museu d’Art Modern, Palma de Mallorca, Spain Costanti del classico nell’arte del XX e XXI secolo, Fondazione Puglisi Cosentino, Palazzo Valle Catania, Italy
Nudes, Galeria Fortes Vilaça, São Paulo, Brasil
2012/13 This is Not a Fashion Photograph, ICP – International Center of Photography, New York, USA
Der nackte Mann, Lentos Kunstmuuseum, Linz, Österreich; Ludwig Museum, Budapest, Hungary Body Image: American Art and the Human Form, Birmingham Museum of Art, Birmingham, USA
Self-Portrait, Louisiana Museum of Modern Art, Humlebaek, Denmark
2008
2012 North Diana und Aktaion, Museum Kunst Palast, Düsseldorf, Germany
Sala Pelaires, C/Pelaires, 5, E07001 Palma de Mallorca, Spain Fotografien aus der Sammlung agnès b., C/O Berlin, Germany
Körper als Protest, Albertina, Vienna, Austria FEMALE TROUBLE, Pinakothek der Moderne, Munich, Germany
Regarding Warhol: Sixty Artists, Fifty Years, Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, USA Street & Studio, Tate Modern, London, England
Poule!, Jumex Collection, Mexico City, Mexico Punk. No One is Innocent, Kunsthalle Wien, Vienna, Austria
Photography on Photography: Reflections on the Medium since 1960, Metropolitan Museum, New York, USA
2011 Second Thoughts, CCS Bard Hessel Museum, Annandale-on-Hudson, USA
CIRCA 1986, Hudson Valley Center for Contemporary Art, Peekskill, USA Nina in Position, Artists Space, New York, USA
Clap, Hessel Museum of Art, Bard College, Annadale-on-Hudson, USA Political Corect, Blondeau Fine Art Services, Genève, Switzerland
Off the Wall/Fora da Parede, Fundação de Serralves, Porto, Portugal
Autour de l’extrême, Maison Européenne de la Photographie, Paris, France 2007
Eros, Fondation Beyeler, Basel, Switzerland
2010 Das achte Feld / The eight square, Museum Ludwig Köln, Cologne, Germany
Man Ray – Mapplethorpe, Fondazione Marconi, Milan, Italy The body exposed, ArteF, Zurich, Switzerland
Chelsea Hotel: Ghosts of Bohemia, DOX Centre for Contemporary Art, Prague, Czech Republic The heartbeat of fashion, Deichtorhallen Hamburg, Germany
Nude Visions – 150 Jahre Körperbilder in der Fotografie, Museum der bildenden Künste Leipzig, Germany Revelation, Kulturhuset Stockholm, Sweden
Incognito: The Hidden Self-Portrait, Yancey Richardson Gallery, New York, USA Galerie tazl, Graz, Austria
Off the Wall. Part 1: Thirty Performative Actions, Whitney Museum of American Art, New York, USA Wrestle, Hessel Museum of Art / CCS Bard, Annandale-on-Hudson, USA
Haunted: Contemporary Photography/Video/Performance, Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, New York, USA Into Me / Out of Me, KW – Kunstwerke Berlin, Germany, MACRO – Museo d´Arte Contemporanea Roma, Italy
Kontroversen. Justiz, Ethik und Fotografie, KunstHaus Wien, Vienna, Austria Family Pictures, Guggenheim Museum New York, USA
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Eros in der Kunst der Moderne, BA-CA Kunstforum, Wien, Austria
Rockers Island. Olbricht Collection, Museum Folkwang, Essen, Germany
MODE:BILDER Sammlung F.C. Gundlach, NRW-Forum, Dusseldorf, Germany
Exhibitionism, CCS Bard Hessel Museum, Annandale-on-Hudson, USA
exitus. tod alltäglich, Künstlerhaus Wien, Austria
Seduced – Art and Sex from Antiquity to Now, Barbican Centre, London, England
2006
Whitney Biennial, Whitney Museum of American Art, New York, USA
Good Vibrations. Visual arts and rock music, Palazzo delle Papesse – Centro Arte Contemporanea, Siena, Italy
Speaking with Hands. Photographs from The Buhl Collection, Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum Bilbao, Spain;
Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum New York, USA; Museum Folkwang, Essen, Germany
Celebrity Portraits, Sean Kelly Gallery, New York, USA
Thank you for the Music, Galerie Sprüth Magers, Simon Lee, London, England
Jan Fabre, beaumontpublic+königbloc, Luxemburg
Singular, Galleri S.E., Bergen, Norway
La vision impura, Reina Sofía, Madrid, Spain
Baldwin Gallery, Aspen, USA
Die verliehene Zeit, Neues Museum Weserburg, Bremen, Germany
In Sight, MoCP–Museum of Contemporary Photography, Chicago, USA
Into me / Out of me, P.S.1 MoMA, Long Island, USA
Flutter, The Approach, London, England
Corpus Christi, Kunsthalle Krems, Austria
Surprise, Surprise, ICA – Institute of Contemporary Arts, London, England
2005
Thank you for the Music, Galerie Sprüth Magers, Munich, Germany
Hara Museum of Contemporary Art, Tokyo, Japan
Flashback – Eine Revision der Kunst der 80er Jahre, Museum für Gegenwartskunst, Basel, Switzerland
Singular, Galleri SE, Bergen, Norway
2004
Pictures Pictures, Marc Selwyn Fine Art, Los Angeles, USA
Pandemic: Imaging AIDS, The Watson Institute for International Studies, Providence, USA
2002
Portrait Photography, Mai 36 Galerie, Zurich, Switzerland
1997
Goodbye to Berlin? 100 Jahre Schwulenbewegung, Schwules Museum, Akademie der Künste, Berlin, Germany
1992
Portraits, Klarfeld Perry Gallery, New York, USA
The Midtown Flower Show, Midtown Payson Galleries, New York; travelled to The Portland Museum of Art,
Maine, USA
1991
Fashion Photography Since 1945, Victoria and Albert Museum, London, England
Twentieth Century Collage, Margo Leavin Gallery, Los Angeles, USA; travelled to Centro Cultural Arte Con-
temporaneo, Mexico City, and Musee D’Arte Moderne et D’ Arte Contemporain, Nice, France
7 Women, Andrea Rosen Gallery, New York, USA
The Body in question, Aperture Foundation, New York, USA
The Power of Theatrical Madness, Fotografie Forum Frankfurt, Frankfurt a.M., Germany
Modern Botanical, ICAC Weston Gallery, Carmel, USA
National Gallery of Victoria, Melbourne, Australia
Erotic Desire, Perspektief, Rotterdam, Netherlands
La Revanche de L’Image, Galerie Pierre Huber, Geneva, Switzerland
Framed, Stephen Wirtz Gallery, San Francisco, USA
Cruciformed: Images of the Cross since 1980, Cleveland Center for Contemporary Art, Cleveland, travelled to
the Museum of Contemporary Art at Wright State University, Dayton, USA
Photography From 1980 to 1990, Ginny Williams Gallery, Denver, USA
Galerie Nikolaus Sonne, Berlin, Germany
1990
The Indomitable Spirit, The International Center of Photography, Midtown, New York, USA; travelled to
Lorence Monk Gallery and Pace/ MacGill Gallery, New York; Fraenkel Gallery, San Francisco; Rhona Hoffman
Gallery, Chicago; Blum Helman Gallery, Santa Monica; The Los Angeles Municipal Art Gallery, Los Angeles, USA
Botanica: The Secret Life of Plants, Lehman College Art Gallery, The City University of New York, USA
Disturb Me, Massimo Audiello Gallery, New York, USA
The Humanist Icon, The Bayly Art Museum, Charlottesville, USA; travelled to The New York Academy of Art,
New York and to the Edwin A. Ulrich Museum of Art, Wichita State University, Wichita, USA
G. Ray Hawkins Gallery, Los Angeles, USA
1989
Photography Now, Victoria and Albert Museum, London, England
Das Portrait in der zeitgenössischen Photographie, Frankfurter Kunstverein, Frankfurt a.M., Germany
150 Years of Photography, National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C., USA; travelled to The Art Institute of
Chicago and LACMA, Los Angeles, USA
The Legacy of William Henry Fox Talbot, Burden Gallery, New York, USA
Betsy Rosenfield Gallery, Chicago, USA
L’Invention d’un Art, Centre Georges Pompidou, Paris, France
Taboo, Greg Kucera Gallery, Seattle, USA
Self and Shadow, Burden Gallery, Aperture Foundation, New York, USA
Museo De Arte Contemporaneo de Caracas, Caracas, Venezuela
Das Portrait in der zeitgenössischen Photographie, Kulturzentrum Mainz, Germany
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 Publisher
Galerie Thomas Schulte GmbH
Charlottenstraße 24
D-10117 Berlin
Phone: 0049 (0)30 20 60 89 90
www.galeriethomasschulte.de

Photo Credits
© 2020 The Robert Mapplethorpe
Foundation, the photographers
and Galerie Thomas Schulte