Download
1 / 10
160 likes | 542 Views
Robert Mapplethorpe. Kayla Courtenay Block Two. Biography. Robert Mapplethorpe was born in 1946 in Floral Park, Queens. In 1963, Mapplethorpe enrolled at Pratt Institute where he studied drawing, painting, and sculpture.
E N D
Robert Mapplethorpe Kayla Courtenay Block Two
Biography • Robert Mapplethorpe was born in 1946 in Floral Park, Queens. • In 1963, Mapplethorpe enrolled at Pratt Institute where he studied drawing, painting, and sculpture. • His main came from many famous artists such as Joseph Cornell and Marcel Duchamphe. • He mainly dealt with various materials and made many mixed-media collages, using images cut from books and magazines. • His first camera was a Polaroid camera he got in 1970 and began producing his own photographs to incorporate into the collages, saying he felt "it was more honest."
Biography • In 1973, the Light Gallery in New York City mounted his first solo gallery exhibition, "Polaroids." • Two years later he acquired a Hasselblad medium-format camera and began shooting his circle of friends and acquaintances—artists, musicians, socialites, pornographic film stars, and members of the S & M underground. He also worked on commercial projects, creating album cover art for Patti Smith and Television and a series of portraits and party pictures for Interview Magazine. • In 1986, he was diagnosed with AIDS. Despite his illness, he accelerated his creative efforts, broadened the scope of his photographic inquiry, and accepted increasingly challenging commissions. • His vast, provocative, and powerful body of work has established him as one of the most important artists of the twentieth century. • He established the Robert Mapplethorpe Foundation in 1988 to promote photography, support museums that exhibit photographic art, and to fund medical research in the fight against AIDS and HIV-related infection.
Style • Robert Mapplethorpe had created his own style of photography, taking bits and pieces from modern and traditional photography. • He mainly focused on the imperfections and the small details of a person or a thing. He once said “I'd rather see photographs of the low down ACDC underworld than "high" fashion any day. Imperfection equals beauty...who wants the plastic world anyways?
Critque • David Hockney, 1976 • This portrait is of David Hockney. This is a very simple yet very expressive picture. The contrast and his expression gives the feeling of a laid back vibe. I really like this photo because it really shows you the true person that David Hockney is.
1970’s Timeline • Cold War and the anti-war movement • 1973 oil crisis and 1979 energy crisis • United States President Richard Nixon resigns as President in 1974 while facing charges for impeachment for the Watergate scandal. • The 1970 Bhola cyclone killed 500,000 people • The early 1970s saw the rise of popular soft rock/pop rock music, with recording artists such as Fleetwood Mac, The Carpenters, Ray Stevens, Elton John, James Taylor, John Denver, The Eagles, America, Chicago, The Doobie Brothers, Paul McCartney and Wings, Bread and Steely Dan • The Psychedelic art movement spread during the 70’s as well as New Realism, Conceptual Art and Performance Art.
Robert Mapplethorpe really made a difference in photography because he broke the molds of society and instead of taking “pretty pictures,” he really showed the flawed sides of human beings. He didn’t care what others thought about his pictures, he cared what he thought about them and with this he captured peoples raw essence of their personality.
References • www.mapplethorpe.org • www.masters-of-photography.com • www.artnet.com • www.google.com/images
