I am currently looking at the works of Robert Mapplethorpe(1946-1989), a short lived artist who most certainly lived by the moto of; live fast and die young. An American artist who found his way into the art industry with the simple expression of photography. Mapplethorpe covered an array of subject matters all under one belt. Mapplethorpe covered the diverse grounds of Celebrity Portraiture, self-portraits, still life (Flowers only) and male and female nudes.
I was initially attracted to Mapplethorpe work due to the clean pristine photographs he takes in every shoot, capturing every minuet detail of the human figure. It was after a good few minutes of researching into him that i would find Mapplethorpe Scenario fits in with my context of questioning the relationship between Artist and viewer. "The Perfect Moment" would be the first show to hold no boundaries of such explicit images. The Show would display up to 175 images from his entourage of chosen subjects, all grouped into 3 Portfolios nude portraits of African-American men (the “Z” portfolio), flower still life’s (“Y”) and homosexual S&M (“X”). The “X” collection of Images included crude Pictures of Male Bondage, Anal and Meatus Urination insertions, up and personal shots of the male genitalia etc. Directed by Dennis Barrie the Show ‘The Perfect Moment’ would soon be open to the public eye in April 1990. That very same day of the open exhibition CAC and Mapplethorpe’s homoerotic exhibition will be cleared by the police and became a nationwide publicised obscenity.
One striking feature of Mapplethorpe work is he obscene and frankly edgy poses Mapplethorpe asks his models to hit. It defies all normal expectation of Life models, such obscene poses really flaunts every angle and aspect the model has to offer. This highlighting quality of Mapplethorpe most certainly makes me view his work over other Artist who have captured Nude models in a more recognisable formatted pose.
Just like Mapplethorpe I am interested in using the tonal colours of Black,White and Grey. The reason behind this is so the colour wont alter any emotion or distract the attention away from my key feature; the model.
