Robert Mapplethorpe and the Classical Tradition (2004, first edition)

An illustrated study of Mapplethorpe's prints besides Mannerist prints

Author

Publisher

Printing Details

First edition, first printing. Hardback in dustwrapper. 28.5 × 26cm, 231pp.

Published in 2004 to accompany the exhibition of the same name, Robert Mapplethorpe and the Classical Tradition: Photographs and Mannerist Prints is a book that formally pairs approximately 50 of Mapplethorpe's gelatin silver prints with an equal number of 16th-century Mannerist engravings and bronzes from the State Hermitage Museum. Accompanied by scholarly essays from curators Arkady Ippolitov, Germano Celant, and Jennifer Blessing, the volume illustrates how Mapplethorpe treated photography as a rapid medium for modern sculpture. Side-by-side visual comparisons—such as his portraits of bodybuilder Lisa Lyons or Derrick Cross placed alongside Dutch and Italian masterworks by Jacob Matham and Jan Harmensz Muller—demonstrate a shared lineage of elongated form, idealization, geometric rigor, and eroticized classical allegory across four centuries.

Condition

A very good copy, with light wear to the wrapper's edges.

ISBN

9780892073139