The following piece is published as part of our TLM Young Writers series, a dedicated section of The London Magazine‘s website which showcases the work of exceptional young talent aged between 13-21, from the UK and beyond.

Adelaide Ng

---

Robert Mapplethorpe: SUBJECT OBJECT IMAGE

.
.

“Much has been said about Robert, and more will be added. Young men will adopt his gait. Young girls will wear white dresses and mourn his curl, He will be condemned and adored. His excesses damned or romanticised,” writes Patti Smith in Just Kids. “In the end, truth will be found in his work, the corporeal body of the artist. It will not fall away.”
.

If masculinity was to be realised into a photograph, it would take the form of Robert Mapplethorpe’s portrait of a flexing, Adonis-like Arnold Schwarzenegger. Among one of the most controversial photographers of all time, Mapplethorpe was famed for creating a provocative body of work that exposed the racy, underground culture of 1970’s-80’s New York. As a victim of the AIDS pandemic, Mapplethorpe established a foundation in his own name to preserve his legacy of works which continue to incite mixed sentiments in audiences and confront the boundaries of sexual politics and art.
.
In collaboration with the Robert Mapplethorpe Foundation, the Allison Jacques gallery is currently showing a curated collection of Mapplethorpe’s photography, with particular emphasis on his work in portraiture. The exhibit is composed of rarely-exhibited, elegant still images of vases, nude models, and prominent artists, including Patti Smith herself, attesting to his uncompromising vision for beauty and his technical capacity to execute such. Indeed, there was more to the artist than the public had accredited him for.

Entering the gallery, viewers are greeted with a mirror placed within a gridded wooden frame. In reference to the title of the exhibit, the audience is transformed into the role of his subject, or object, as part of an image. To another effect, the grid wires of the installation references the fishnet stockings in Mapplethorpe’s nude photograph of a model’s buttocks, which is presented with such symmetry that it appears almost visually pleasing, raising a meditation on the bounds of beauty and the fluidity of aesthetics.
.
Moving beyond the installation, within the same room lies photographs of the back of a man staring out a window, a lonesome orchid, two embracing men almost pictorially woven as one, a horny devil (quite literally), and a candid Smith draped in shower curtains… Regardless of the subject, Mapplethorpe illustrates all of his works with equal intricacy and offers them a demure, romantic quality. Somehow, his eye for beauty becomes more striking than the obscenity of his subjects.

In the second room, Mapplethorpe’s innate ability to emanate one’s personality in a single shot is placed on full display. Plastering the maroon walls was an overwhelming mass of portraits; their gazes uniformly directed at the audience, forming an overall intimidating assemblage upon first glance. Yet closer inspection allows for greater appreciation, and the characters within the images eventually come alive: the subtle swagger of Richard Gere, Yoko Ono’s challenging gaze, the mystifying look on Andy Warhol… Each photograph has a visually commanding presence that intensifies when integrated as part of a collective.
.
Offering a rare opportunity to view the world through Mapplethorpe’s lens, the gallery celebrates the progressive photographer’s tragically shortened yet fulfilling career, showcasing his underrated skill set and his daring spirit that perennially “will not fall away”.
.
.
.

Adelaide Ng is a student at Brown University. She writes about the arts, fashion, and music.

---

To discover more content exclusive to our print and digital editions, subscribe here to receive a copy of The London Magazine to your door every two months, while also enjoying full access to our extensive digital archive of essays, literary journalism, fiction and poetry.