Robert Mapplethorpe and the Classical Tradition Opens

Sunday, 24 July 2005 23:27

NEW YORK, NY.-The Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum presents Robert Mapplethorpe and the Classical Tradition: Photographs and Mannerist Prints. This exhibition will explore the relationship between the photography of Robert Mapplethorpe and classical art, in particular through 16th century Flemish Mannerist engravings. Among the first collaborations between the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, New York, and the State Hermitage Museum, St. Petersburg, the project is co-organized by Germano Celant, Senior Curator of Contemporary Art at the Guggenheim, and Arkady Ippolitov, Curator of Italian Prints at the Hermitage. An international movement and style that spread to France and Northern Europe, Mannerism developed in the 16th century with roots in Italian art, specifically that of Raphael. Referred to as “the stylish style,” it is characterized by compositional, emotional, and narrative elements that shift away from the median of harmony and equilibrium embodied by the art of the High Renaissance. An exceptional selection of Mannerist works from the Hermitage collection will be paired with superb photographs by Mapplethorpe from the collections of the Guggenheim and the Robert Mapplethorpe Foundation. A small selection of sculptures will also be on view, illustrating Mapplethorpe's interest in and passion for the human figure. The exhibition will exemplify Mapplethorpe's rapport with the elongated and elaborate forms of Mannerist art, namely the study of the human body, highlighting the underlying classicism evident in the clarity and potency of all Mapplethorpe's subjects as well as their explosive energy. The classical ideal was not only a poetic inspiration but also an ethical model, and in his creative quest Mapplethorpe described photography as “the perfect way to make a sculpture.” The potency of love and Eros, which electrifies many of the Mannerist works in the exhibition, is articulated again in the work of Mapplethorpe. The vital anatomical forms of his portraits of models, such as bodybuilder Lisa Lyons and the statuesque Derrick Cross, find their roots in antiquity, and in this exhibition find their mirror in such Mannerist prints as Jan Harmensz Muller's Rape of a Sabine Woman and Jacob Matham's Apollo. Ippolitov is the author of numerous articles on the relationship between European old masters and Russian art; Celant has published extensively on Mapplethorpe and the rich art historical past referenced in the photographer's work. Ippolitov discusses the obsession that defines both the work of Mapplethorpe and the Mannerists. Mythological and allegorical themes are explored as well as an examination of the pursuit of the ideal and its ultimate expression: death. Celant's text further explores the influence of art historical styles on Mapplethorpe's artistic practice and sensibility, illuminating the artist's interest in the study of pure form as well as allegorical imagery. Through both word and image also traces Mapplethorpe's complex relationship to the history of art more broadly, ranging from neoclassicism to Surrealism, with comparisons to the work of Jacques-Louis David, Antonio Canova, Auguste Rodin, Man Ray, and others. Examples of highly stylized, theatrical, and antinaturalistic scenes and portraits, suggesting that these mannered images are determined by the clash between the idealistic intent of their makers and the realism of photographic representation.

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