Robert Mapplethorpe Balances Obscenity and Elegance at LACMA

Rachael McDonald

American photographer Robert Mapplethorpe is perhaps best known for being both an elegant and provocative artist. Mapplethorpe’s work brings us a graceful synthesis of pronounced dualities; finding a balance somewhere between dichotomy and harmony. Mapplethorpe’s work is sometimes classically tasteful, sometimes controversial, but always elegant. With a provocative self-image nearly as iconic as his work itself, the artist’s stylized black-and-white photographs range from flowers to nudes, formal portraits to fetishized obscenities. Mapplethorpe’s eclectic mix of subjects included artists, musicians, socialites, bohemian riffraff, porn stars and members of the underground queer BDSM scene as well as the artist himself. A close friend of Patti Smith’s, Mapplethorpe’s iconic photograph of the artist became the album cover for Patti Smith Group’s fourth studio album “Wave.”

Throughout this summer, LACMA’s recent exhibition “Robert Mapplethorpe: The Perfect Medium” will remain on display for Angelenos and visitors. An in-depth retrospective of Mapplethorpe’s work, the exhibit particularly concentrates on the artist’s intricate relationship with New York City’s sexual and artistic undergrounds as well as his lesser-known experimentation with an assortment of media. Traversing the artist’s body of work from his earliest Polaroid photography, collages, drawings and sculptures to other achieved works including rare moving-image pieces and color photographs, LACMA’s exhibit presents an extensive exploration into the dialogue of Robert Mapplethorpe’s work. The museum will also be featuring a companion exhibit entitled “Physical: Sex and the Body in the 80s” alongside Mapplethorpe’s retrospective. This companion gallery explores the body’s position in creative consciousness in the ‘80s, contextualizing Mapplethorpe’s work within the broader dialogue of the decade.

Another complementary exhibit sharing the same title with “The Perfect Medium” will also be running at the Getty Museum in conjunction with LACMA’s throughout this summer. The Getty’s exhibit investigates the artist’s studio practice alongside his controversial “X Portfolio,” one of his most transgressive works. “X Portfolio” features highly graphic fetishized imagery and sexual themes that are certainly not without Mapplethorpe’s elegant touch. The artist’s self-referred “perfection in form” expressed through his traditionally contradictory subject-matter remains unprecedented in the world of photography; Mapplethorpe presents us with elegance and obscenity existing hand and hand, gracefully challenging our cultural assumptions about beauty and dignity.

“Robert Mapplethorpe: The Perfect Medium“ and “Physical Sex and the Body in the 1980s” will both be on view through July 31 at LACMA. Both are specially ticketed exhibits. Tickets and more information are available here.