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Featured Acquisitions and Gifts

ARTIST ROOMS: The d'Offay Donation

Robert Mapplethorpe (1946–1989)

Three rooms comprising a major collection of 64 black-and-white photographs, including 17 vintage prints signed by the artist.

The American photographer Robert Mapplethorpe pushed the boundaries of his medium with both his subject matter and innovative techniques. Originally trained as a sculptor, his understanding of the human body in relation to the light which reveals it also extends his photographs beyond the boundaries of sculpture in a way that has yet to be surpassed in either medium. His distinctive style possesses a classical quality that revels in the sensual quality of nature and the human body. His work was often considered controversial but Mapplethorpe triumphed over legal campaigns, testing the right to individual freedom of expression. His work therefore also holds a significant place in the history of artistic struggle to depict the world as it is with honesty and truth. The group of photographs in The d’Offay Donation, probably the best collection in the world after the Guggenheim Museum, includes studies of flowers, portraits of many of the most influential artists, writers and musicians of the period, including Andy Warhol, Truman Capote and Patti Smith, and iconic self-portraits.

Patti Smith Patti Smith 1979
Photograph on paper
508 x 406 mm
Number 6 in an edition of 10
© Robert Mapplethorpe Foundation. Used by Permission

Andy Warhol Andy Warhol 1983
Photograph on paper
508 x 406 mm
Number 2 in an edition of 10
© Robert Mapplethorpe Foundation. Used by Permission

Self Portrait Self-Portrait 1979
Photograph on paper
508 x 406 mm
Number 1 of 2 artist's proofs
© Robert Mapplethorpe Foundation. Used by Permission

Artists

National Heritage Memorial Fund       The Art Fund       Department for Culture, Media and Sport      The Scottish Government

 

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