Contact:
Mark Linga
617.452.3586
mlinga@mit.edu
NEWS
RELEASE
The MIT Dean’s Gallery presents
Robert Mapplethorpe’s Y Portfolio
Organized by the MIT List Visual Arts Center
October 29, 2007–February 29, 2008
CAMBRIDGE, MA— November 2007. The Dean’s Gallery presents Robert
Mapplethorpe’s Y Portfolio. This exhibition features thirteen examples of Mapplethorpe’s
early photographic studies of flowers. Throughout his career, Mapplethorpe
photographed flowers in order to develop his skills with the camera and lighting
techniques, and to illustrate more classical ideas of beauty. The exhibition presents
images, from negatives made in 1977 and 1978.
Mapplethorpe’s acute grasp of formalism is as evident in these early still lifes as it is in
his more controversial nude photography. His use of space isolates the subject from its
environment, placing emphasis solely on the relationship between the flower and the
gaze of the viewer, creating an almost palpable visual sensuality. Much of
Mapplethorpe’s other work, specifically his X Portfolio and his Z Portfolio, have been
controversial due to their explicit content, but the subtlety of the works on view often
resonates as more powerful, possibly because of what is being suggested, but not
shown.
When these photographs for the Permanent Collection were acquired by the List Visual
Arts Center, they were accompanied by a text written by Mapplethorpe’s close friend and
music legend, Patti Smith. In this text, Smith gave a brief explanation of the history and
reasoning behind these images, as well as a copy of her poem, after which the Y
Portfolio was named. The following is an excerpt from that text:
Y is the divine creation of nature which is then transposed into an image by the
artist. This idea on the role of the artist has been seen from two opposing sides.
Either the artist is guided by divine will or he is challenging divine will.
Mapplethorpe feels that his art is not a challenge to but a covenant with God:
Y is the symbol of the covenant which exists
between the artist and his creator,
promising exclusive devotion to an idea.
-more-
Indeed both views have a point. Art, especially the art of photography, is the
closest humans have come to reproducing nature as well as changing it to suit
their desires.
About the Artist:
Born in 1946 in Floral Park, a suburb of Queens, New York, Robert Mapplethorpe is one
of the most prominent photographers of the 20th Century. From 1963 to 1970,
Mapplethorpe earned a B.F.A. from the Pratt Institute in Brooklyn, where he focused
most of his attention on painting and sculpture. It was not until the 1970s that he began
experimenting with photography as a way to create source material for his paintings. In
the mid ‘70s he obtained a large format press camera, and from there photography
slowly became the dominant medium in his work. Mapplethorpe gained notoriety for his
portraits of pop idols and icons of contemporary film and music, as well as portraits of
other artists. One of his earliest subjects was musician Patti Smith, with whom he was
very close friends. Other celebrity subjects included Truman Capote, Arnold
Schwarzenegger, Isabella Rossellini, Kathleen Turner, Richard Gere, and Andy Warhol.
Robert Mapplethorpe passed away due to complications from AIDS in 1989, at the age
of 42.
Location:
The Dean’s Gallery, the MIT Sloan School of Management
50 Memorial Drive, Building E52
Fourth Floor, Room 466
Cambridge, MA 02139
Gallery hours:
Monday-Friday 9:00AM to 5:00PM; closed all holidays.
Information about the Dean’s Gallery:
617.253.9458 or http://web.mit.edu/deansgallery
All exhibitions at the Dean’s Gallery are free and open to the public. Wheelchair
accessible.
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