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'Within the realm of light he masters black. Blacks to be lost in. Blacks balanced with shifts of light to form a kind of architecture. Blacks soften into pale graphite and serve as a Rothkoesque backdrop for the muscle of a curving stem.' -- Patti Smith, 19871

ROBERT MAPPLETHORPE (1946-1989)

Calla Lily, 1986

Details

ROBERT MAPPLETHORPE (1946-1989)
Calla Lily, 1986
platinum print with black borders
signed, titled, dated, numbered 'MAP PC 1691', '1/2' by Michael Ward Stout, Executor, in pencil on verso
image: 19¾ x 20in. (50.1 x 50.8cm.); paper: 25 7/8 x 22 1/8in. (65.6 x 62.2cm.)

Provenance

With Cheim & Read, New York.

Literature

Marshall, Robert Mapplethorpe, Whitney Museum of American Art Bulfinch, 1988, p.185, for platinum on linen; Robert Mapplethorpe: Ten by Ten, Schirmer/Mosel, 1988, pl.28; Holborn & Levas (eds.), Mapplethorpe, Jonathan Cape, 1992, p.253, there without borders; Mapplethorpe: Pistils, Random House, 1996, p.109.

Special notice

VAT rate of 5% is payable on hammer price and at 15% on the buyer's premium

Lot Essay

The Robert Mapplethorpe Foundation confirms that this print is one of only two platinum prints of this image with black borders.

Mapplethorpe pushed the boundaries of the photographic medium through his experimentation with photographic techniques and constructions. He made platinum prints with black borders only in 1986-87 and this print is a rare and beautiful example of his exploration in platinum. Mapplethorpe sought 'perfection of form' in his images -- whether capturing a body or a flower -- and it is clear that he has achieved it in this image of a single calla lily.

1 Robert Mapplethorpe, Bellport Press, 1987.

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