Solomon R.
Guggenheim Museum, Upper East Side
Until
Jan 5 2020
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.
Discover
Robert Mapplethorpe’s photographs alongside work by six contemporary artists
exploring identity through portraiture.
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.
Alongside a
focused selection of Mapplethorpe’s photographs, the second part of Implicit
Tensions (July 24, 2019–January 5, 2020) showcases the work of Rotimi
Fani-Kayode, Lyle Ashton Harris, Glenn Ligon, Zanele Muholi, Catherine Opie,
and Paul Mpagi Sepuya, artists who offer expansive approaches to exploring
identity through photographic portraiture. Following Mapplethorpe’s death in
1989, Glenn Ligon created Notes on the Margin of the Black Book (1991–93), an
incisive response to Mapplethorpe’s depictions of nude black men. Ligon’s seminal
work galvanized critical dialogues around histories of representation by
contextualizing these images within larger cultural discussions about race and
sexuality. Taking Ligon’s project as a starting point, this presentation traces
how artists have variously claimed, diverged from, and critically charted the
implications and power dynamics of Mapplethorpe’s images, providing nuanced
perspectives about identity and difference. Rather than mapping a trajectory of
influence, this exhibition suggests a two-way effect: as these artists create
new meanings and possibilities for photographic experimentation on their own
terms, they also produce counterpoints that challenge and reframe
understandings of Mapplethorpe’s practice. The works on view demonstrate a variety
of strategies that have evolved within the field of photography during the last
three decades, including the construction of identity through self-portraiture,
the affirmation of community through photographic representation, and the
conception of art as a vehicle for social advocacy.
This
exhibition is organized by Lauren Hinkson, Associate Curator, Collections, and
Susan Thompson, Associate Curator, with Levi Prombaum, Curatorial Assistant,
Collections.
Generous
funding for Implicit Tensions: Mapplethorpe Now is provided by Stein Erik
Hagen–The Canica Art Collection, the William Talbott Hillman Foundation, and
LLWW Foundation.
The
Leadership Committee is gratefully acknowledged for its support, with special
thanks to Peter Marino; Baldwin Gallery, Aspen; Angelo K H Chan and Frederick
Wertheim; Joseph M. Cohen Family Collection; Caryl Englander; Galerie Thaddaeus
Ropac, Paris; William Georgis; Gladstone Gallery; Xavier Hufkens; Tian-Tzy Li
and Julio Herrera; Alison Jacques Gallery; MAI 36 Galerie, Zurich; Lisa and
John Miller; Ted Pappendick and Erica Gervais; Lauren and Scott Pinkus; Ann and
Mel Schaffer; Patty and Howard Silverstein; the Evelyn Toll Family Foundation;
and Cristina von Bargen and Jonathan McHardy.
Additional
funding is provided by the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum’s Photography Council.
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