Autoportrait

by Robert Mapplethorpe, Richard D. Marshall (Introduction)

The early 1970s witnessed the emergence and convergence of body art, performance, earth art, video, narrative, and photography-based art that sought to break the stronghold of minimalism (an art of pure form and materials) and conceptualism (the art of pure idea). In this context, Robert Mapplethorpe was an artist who infused art with personal reference, subjective expression, and allusion to real time and emotion. Among the foremost subjects and objects that Mapplethorpe pursued were the self, the body, body parts, sexual organs, and sexuality.Mapplethorpe's earliest and most frequent subject was himself, in various guises, activities, and states of arousal that celebrated his ego, his body, and his sexual desires. The subject of nudity, sex, and self was a primary focus in Mapplethorpe's work. Mapplethorpe acknowledged that "I was working with other peoples' pictures from pornographic magazines. I thought it would be more interesting if I had my own pornographic images, so I got a Polaroid camera to make more images".

The black-and-white Polaroid photographs that Mapplethorpe produced during the early 1970s constitute an in-depth self-portrait, intently and graphically exploring expressions, moods, postures, and actions that range from angelic and innocent to sinister and erotic. In addition, Mapplethorpe did not completely reject minimal and conceptual concerns, but transformed them into his own aesthetic. Autoportrait, the first publication dealing exclusively with Mapplethorpe's self-portrait Polaroids, presents the artist's most revealing attempts to wed the erotic and sexual with other theoretical concerns.

Autoportrait confirms Mapplethorpe's aesthetic alignment withother artists of his generation, while simultaneously presenting Mapplethorpe's singular vision that helped shift the direction of late-twentieth-century art.

Genres: Photography, Art

144 pages, Hardcover

First published May 1, 2001

About the author

Robert Mapplethorpe was an American photographer, known for his large-scale, highly stylized black and white portraits, photos of flowers and naked men. The frank, homosexually erotic nature of some of the work of his middle period triggered a more general controversy about the public funding of artworks.

Reviews

[Noora · Rating 4 out of 5]

Let this be known as the first collection of Mapplethorpe I laid my eyes on.

ACTUAL FOOTAGE FROM INSTAGRAM STORY WHILE I WAS READING THIS







Honestly, I felt like I was missing so much of queer art history without knowing Mapplethorpe. I've known his name for years and never got around to actually looking into him. I'm so glad I did! and you all should too!

Also, Matt Smith is playing him in a biopic real soon. And he looks absolutely stunning! I'm always proud of Matt Smith. He doesn't look quite as charming and gorgeous as Mapplethorpe himself im kidding hes fabulous, but he's brilliant nevertheless.






Moral of the Story: Look up Mapplethorpe if you don't know him, watch Mapplethorpe's biopic's teaser starring Matt Smith, and know your queer history. Cheers.

[Cat · Rating 1 out of 5]

This collection of unpublished early polaroids by Robert Mapplethorpe sounds good in theory but there's a reason they weren't published. They're not good images. I didn't really need to see quite so many pictures of Mapplethorpe's dick either.

[Stéphanie Amesse · Rating 5 out of 5]

Great collection of Mapplethorpe's early selfies.