NYAB Event - Robert Mapplethorp “Unique”

Robert Mapplethorp “Unique”

Sean Kelly Gallery

This event has ended.

Sean Kelly presents Unique, an exhibition of carefully selected Polaroid photographs taken between 1970 and 1975 by legendary American photographer Robert Mapplethorpe. The exhibition includes over twenty-five examples of Mapplethorpe’s early use of instant photography.

Featuring self-portraits, figure studies, still lifes, and portraits of his lovers and friends, Unique offers a glimpse at Mapplethorpe’s formative years as a photographer and reveals the themes that would inspire him throughout his career. Marked by a spontaneity and creative curiosity, these intimate photographs offer an illuminating contrast to the carefully crafted and controlled studio images for which the artist subsequently became known.

Mapplethorpe once said, photography “was the perfect medium, or so it seemed, for the ‘70s and ‘80s, when everything was fast. If I were to make something that took two weeks to do, I’d lose my enthusiasm. It would become an act of labor and the love would be gone.” The Polaroid process was particularly appealing to Mapplethorpe for its immediacy and accessibility, providing him with the freedom to experiment and test the limits of picture making. These early images offer a window into Mapplethorpe’s creative development and his initial exploration of intimacy, composition, structure and design.