9 MARCH 1989. 23rd anniversary of Robert Mapplethorpe's passing.
This 1978 photo pictures the two of us entwined together during our affair.
This 1978 photo pictures the two of us entwined together during our affair.
Robert posed us seated and standing after the manner of his photo of Brian Ridley and Lyle Heeter.
The new KINDLE ebook of my memoir, "Mapplethorpe: Assault with a Deadly Camera," shows the sweet person Robert was before Republicans demonized him 100 days after he died and could not defend himself.
In my interviews in the book, the voices keening him are a dozen of Robert's friends: George Dureau, Holly Solomon, Joel-Peter Witkin, Edward Lucie-Smith, and others.
In my interviews in the book, the voices keening him are a dozen of Robert's friends: George Dureau, Holly Solomon, Joel-Peter Witkin, Edward Lucie-Smith, and others.
the Mapplethorpe cover of "Drummer" (September 1978). As editor, I suggested the model and the design, featuring the face prominent with space left at top for the "Drummer" name and side space for laying in of cover text. Robert went back to NY, introduced himself to my friend Elliot Siegal, and shot it. And it was perfect.
They hit it off. He went on to shoot Elliot in several other photos.
Robert Mapplethorpe (November 4, 1946 – March 9, 1989)
was an American photographer, known for his large-scale, highly stylized black and white portraits,
photos of flowers and nude men. The frank homoeroticism of some of the work of his middle period
triggered a more general controversy about the public funding of artworks.
In the summer of 1989, Mapplethorpe's traveling solo exhibit brought national attention to the issues of public funding for the arts, who defines what is obscene, and what censorship should be acceptable.
The Corcoran Gallery of Art in Washington, D.C., had agreed to be one of the host museums for the tour. Mapplethorpe decided to show his latest series that he explored shortly before his death.
Titled Robert Mapplethorpe: The Perfect Moment, it was curated by Janet Kardon of the
The hierarchy of the Corcoran and several members of the U.S. Congress were upset when the works were revealed to them, due to some of the content being homoerotic and sadomasochistically themed.
The museum refused the exhibit's stop during the national tour.
In June 1989, pop artist Lowell Blair Nesbitt became involved in the censorship issue.
Nesbitt, a long-time friend of Mapplethorpe, revealed that he had a $1.5-million bequest to the museum in his will, but publicly promised that if the museum refused to host the exhibition, he would revoke the bequest.
which showed all the images in its space from July 21 to August 13, 1989, to large crowds.
In 1990, the Contemporary Arts Center, and Dennis Barrie, were charged with obscenity.
They were found not guilty by a jury.
The Corcoran refused and Nesbitt bequeathed the money to the Phillips Collection instead. After the Corcoran refused the Mapplethorpe exhibition, the underwriters of the exhibition went to the nonprofit Washington Project for the Arts,
According to the ICA, "The Corcoran's decision sparked a controversial national debate: Should tax dollars support the arts? Who decides what is "obscene" or "offensive" in public exhibitions? And if art can be considered a form of free speech, is it a violation of the First Amendment to revoke federal funding on grounds of obscenity? To this day, these questions remain very much at issue.
(robert mapplethorpe & sam wagstaff)
re~post courtesy~ jack fritscher~ san francisco/antebellum correspondent
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