Robert Mapplethorpe Polaroids at Northwestern University's Block Museum

Written by Don Tubbs Sunday, 05 December 2010 22:00

 

EVANSTON, IL - Largely unknown work by photographer Robert Mapplethorpe are on view at the Chicago area this winter in a major exhibitions at Northwestern University’s Mary and Leigh Block Museum of Art. “Polaroids: Mapplethorpe,” on view in the Block Museum’s Alsdorf Gallery January 13 to April 5, 2009, explores Robert Mapplethorpe’s creative development through his use of instant photography. Mapplethorpe (1946–89) emerged in the late 1970s as one of the most celebrated and controversial photographers of his time.

The artist had not shown an interest in photography before 1970, when he began to use a Polaroid camera to make pictures for collages. Enthralled by the medium, he took some 1,500 Polaroids during the next six years, exploring the subjects that would dominate his later work: portraiture, flowers, sexuality, and the classical beauty of the human body. The photographs on display in this exhibition are marked by a spontaneity that is inherent to instant photography and unlike the carefully composed images of Mapplethorpe’s later, more famous pictures.

Featuring more than 90 photographs, “Polaroids: Mapplethorpe” is organized by the Whitney Museum of American Art, New York, in collaboration with the Robert Mapplethorpe Foundation, New York. Some of the photographs in this exhibition may not be suitable for all audiences.

The Block Museum is organizing and co-presenting a number of programs to complement its winter exhibitions. The Mary and Leigh Block Museum of Art, Northwestern University, is the fine arts museum of Chicago’s North Shore, offering focused visual arts programming for the Northwestern University community and the greater Chicago area. The Museum mounts several exhibitions a year, organizes numerous lectures, symposia, and workshops with artists and scholars, and screens classic and contemporary films at Block Cinema. We also reach national and international audiences through our traveling exhibitions, publications, and Web site. Our expanding permanent collection — consisting primarily of works on paper — distinguishes the Museum as an important repository of original works of art.

Visit The Mary and Leigh Block Museum of Art, Northwestern University at : http://www.blockmuseum.northwestern.edu/

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