The Guggenheim 194 key examples of the artist’s work

In 1993 the Robert Mapplethorpe Foundation gifted the Guggenheim 194 key examples of the artist’s work, as well as a generous financial donation to support their entry into the collection and to name the gallery in which this exhibition is presented. This transformative gift initiated the museum’s photography program and catalyzed its collection of the medium. The first part of Implicit Tensions (January 25–July 10, 2019) featured highlights from the Guggenheim’s in-depth Mapplethorpe holdings, including early Polaroids, collages, and mixed-media constructions; iconic, classicizing photographs of male and female nudes; floral still lifes; portraits of artists, celebrities, and acquaintances; explicit depictions of New York’s underground S&M scene; and searingly honest self-portraits.
金刚川

One of the most critically acclaimed and controversial American artists of the late twentieth century, Robert Mapplethorpe created daring and formally rigorous photographs. He is widely known for images that deliberately transgressed social mores and for the censorship debates that transformed him into a symbol of the culture wars in the late 1980s and early 1990s. In the ensuing decades, artists and critics have grappled with Mapplethorpe’s legacy, raising questions about the agency of the photographic subject and interrogating his representations of homoerotic desire, the black male nude, and the female figure. A yearlong exhibition project in two parts, Implicit Tensions: Mapplethorpe Now explores the full range of the artist’s practice as well as his complex legacy in the field of contemporary art.