Twenty-five years sce the photographer’s posthumo exhibn – which clud imag of gay S&M – beme a pot of bate, what have we learned?
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REVIEW: LACMA’S ‘XYZ’ ON ROBERT MAPPLETHORPE: GAY ARTIST VS. STRAIGHT TRADN
* was robert mapplethorpe gay *
Chartg his personal volvement New York’s gay scene, Robert Mapplethorpe’s photographs monstrated a pellg perspective on the unrground queer culture of the 1970s and 1980s. Patti Smh's boyiend, the gay New York artist who died of AIDS, the man who took a picture of fistg and lled art: However you know of cult photographer Robert Mapplethorpe, 's strange that we know so ltle about the man himself.
Review: LACMA's 'XYZ' on Robert Mapplethorpe: Gay artist vs. straight tradn * was robert mapplethorpe gay *
Famed for shootg male nus, the sndal of the homoeroticism his pictur has overshadowed both the artist and work photos are strikg, even today still reasonably shockg, and unflchg. He worked whout apology, vtg the homosexual wh granur, masculy, and enviable nobily. Gays weren't nng around llg themselv gay.
Rather, his var guis – ia man, gay sex fiend, femme fatale – reveal a mted exploratn of Catholic them faiar throughout art history: the basement and transcennce of the flh; transgrsn, punishment and nfsn; agony and ecstasy. The lol media add a third rg to the circ, relayg not only events and public opn but also tg viewers on the fe pots of Oh obsceny law, the first amendment, the nature of art, homosexualy, the Aids crisis and sex acts most viewers never dreamed existed.