Robert Mapplethorpe

Orchid and Hand

1983

© Robert Mapplethorpe Foundation

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Not on display

Artist: Robert Mapplethorpe 1946–1989
Medium: Photograph, gelatin silver print on paper
Dimensions: Support: 373 × 375 mm
frame: 644 × 617 × 38 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: AR00229

Online caption

A rather thin, bony hand, severed from the rest of its body, is stretched out horizontally, holding a bizarrely shaped orchid. The uneasy relationship between the hand and orchid can be felt but not explained. In this respect it is similar to the way that Man Ray and other surrealist photographers created unsettling juxtapositions between objects and bodies.