Pistils

by Robert Mapplethorpe

Robert Mapplethorpe began taking photographs in the 1970s with a Polaroid camera given to him by a friend. When he died in 1989 of AIDS, at the age of forty-two, he was considered one of the most important photographers of his generation, having gained a reputation as the avatar of a rigorous formalism stunningly wed to graphic and sometimes controversial subject matter.

Most of Robert Mapplethorpe's days began in the early afternoon, often by photographing flowers. Mapplethorpe used them to help focus his vision, centering and warming up for his commercial portrait work. The flowers also helped him to effect the transition to the more daring work, which he executed late at night.

Pistils reproduces 120 of these ravishing images of flowers, many of which have never been published. The full range of Mapplethorpe's virtuosity is displayed here--early exacting still lifes in black-and-white and color; and extremely rare, toned gravure prints. Not since Georgia O'Keeffe has an artist looked at flowers with as developed an eye as Robert Mapplethorpe. In them he discovered sex, death, redemption, and, always, beauty. These photographs go far beyond decorative allure to place him firmly in the pantheon of the photographic masters.

Genres: Art, Photography

173 pages, Hardcover

First published October 1, 1996

About the author

Robert Mapplethorpe was an American photographer whose mastery of black-and-white composition and provocative subject matter made him a central, often polarizing, figure in 20th-century art. Born in Queens, New York, and raised in a strict Catholic household, he studied graphic arts at the Pratt Institute before immersing himself in the vibrant 1960s Manhattan art scene. During this time, he began a lifelong creative partnership and friendship with musician Patti Smith, an association that would prove foundational to both of their careers.
Mapplethorpe’s early work utilized Polaroid photography, but his practice evolved significantly after meeting curator and mentor Sam Wagstaff in 1972. By the mid-1970s, he had adopted the Hasselblad medium-format camera, using its precision to explore subjects ranging from statuesque nudes and delicate still-life flowers—most notably orchids and calla lilies—to formal portraits of celebrities like Andy Warhol and Debbie Harry. However, he is perhaps most famous for his unflinching documentation of New York’s gay BDSM subculture. His work in this area sought to imbue the erotic with the grandeur and nobility of classical sculpture, often utilizing highly formal, statuesque compositions that referenced religious and Renaissance imagery.
Posthumously, Mapplethorpe became a catalyst for the American "culture wars." His 1989 traveling exhibition, The Perfect Moment, sparked a fierce national debate over public funding for the arts and the constitutional limits of free speech. The controversy led to the Corcoran Gallery of Art canceling the show and resulted in an obscenity trial for the Contemporary Arts Center in Cincinnati, though the museum was eventually acquitted.
Mapplethorpe died at age 42 from complications related to HIV/AIDS. Before his passing, he established the Robert Mapplethorpe Foundation to protect his legacy and fund medical research for HIV/AIDS treatment. Today, his work is held in major institutional collections, including the Guggenheim and the Getty Museum, where it continues to be celebrated for its technical perfection and its bold exploration of the human form and sexual identity.