Robert Mapplethorpe

Diane Benson

1980

© Robert Mapplethorpe Foundation

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Not on display

Artist
Robert Mapplethorpe 1946–1989
Medium
Photograph, gelatin silver print on paper
Dimensions
Support: 340 × 341 mm
frame: 612 × 587 × 39 mm
Collection
ARTIST ROOMS Tate and National Galleries of Scotland
Acquisition
ARTIST ROOMS Acquired jointly with the National Galleries of Scotland through The d'Offay Donation with assistance from the National Heritage Memorial Fund and the Art Fund 2008
Reference
AR00203

Online caption

Mapplethorpe has posed his sitter carefully so that her head and projecting hairstyle are in profile, but the back of her coat with its spectacular three-dimensional birds is fully visible. Her exaggerated 1950s-style quiff only just bisects the white diagonal, which emerges from the centre point and slices across the top-left corner of the frame. This emphasises the hairstyle and balances the overall composition.

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