RObert Mapplethorpe

Museums' Joint Deal Lands Robert Mapplethorpe Archive in Los Angeles

Filed under: Art

The work of photographer Robert Mapplethorpe will have a new home in Los Angeles. The J. Paul Getty Trust and the Los Angeles County Museum of Art (LACMA) have jointly acquired thousands of art and archival materials associated with Mapplethorpe. A release states that the vast majority of the acquisition comes in the form of a generous gift from the Robert Mapplethorpe Foundation while the rest was from funds provided by The David Geffen Foundation for LACMA and the J. Paul Getty Trust. The world has been rediscovering Mapplethorpe lately in the wake of the memoir "Just Kids" by rock legend Patti Smith, who recently won a National Book Award for the book which celebrates her creative and personal relationship with Mapplethorpe.

This move makes Los Angeles the center for the study of Mapplethorpe's work. The LA Times reports that the works were appraised at more than $30 million. The archives includes a print of virtually every photograph he editioned in silver gelatin, a large number of Polaroid works and unique works, artworks by Mapplethorpe's contemporaries and personal correspondence. Among the treasures is Mapplethorpe's 1978 film Still Moving featuring Patti Smith. The archive also documents the debate surrounding the homerotic nature of some of his work with media materials covering the NEA, The Corcoran Gallery of Art, and The Cincinnati Contemporary Art Center controversies that arose shortly after the artist died in 1989. Those dramatic news events were part of what has become an ongoing discussion on the role of artistic freedom in publicly funded exhibits.

Tags: art photography, Getty museum, lacma, lifestyle, Los Angeles County Museum of Art, patti smith, RObert Mapplethorpe

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Helmut Newton, Richard Avedon, Mario Testino & More in London Photo Sale

by Jared Paul Stern (RSS feed) —

Filed under: Auctions, Art

World class works including nudes and celebrity portraits by Helmut Newton, Richard Avedon, Irving Penn, Mario Testino, Albert Watson and more are on offer at Christie's Photographs sale in London on May 21. Among the top-priced lots is Albert Watson's greatly enlarged contact sheet of a nude Kate Moss, taken in 1993, estimated at $29,000 - $44,000; his portrait of Uma Thurman meanwhile, also taken in '93, is estimated at $9,000 - $12,000. Mario Testino's iconic 1997 portrait of Princess Di is also expected to do well with an estimate of $26,000 - $32,000. Richard Avedon's portrait of artist Francis Bacon from 1979 is estimated at $18,000 - $26,000. Among the Helmut Newton offerings is 1976's famous Saddle, I (above) and 1980's Tied-up Torso, Ramatuelle, both estimated at $10,000 - $15,000. And Robert Mapplethorpe's nude Sonia Resika, 1988 is estimated at $4,000 - $7,000.

Tags: Albert Watson, celebrity, Francis Bacon, Helmut Newton, Irving Penn, Kate Moss, London, Mario Testino, nude, photography, Princess Dianna, Richard Avedon, Robert Mapplethorpe, supermodels, Uma Thurman