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ROBERT MAPPLETHORPE (American, 1946-1989) LYDIA CHENG signed and dated on verso vintage gelatin silv

Currency:USD Category:Everything Else / Other Start Price:NA Estimated At:8,000.00 - 12,000.00 USD
ROBERT MAPPLETHORPE (American, 1946-1989) LYDIA CHENG signed and dated on verso vintage gelatin silv
ROBERT MAPPLETHORPE (American, 1946-1989) LYDIA CHENG signed and dated on verso vintage gelatin silver print 24 x 20 in. (61 x 50.8 cm) 1987 this print is number 2 from an edition of 10 ESTIMATE: $8,000-12,000 PROVENANCE Robert Miller Gallery, NEW YORK Private Collection, NEW YORK LITERATURE Robert Mapplethorpe, SOME WOMEN, New York, 1986, title page (variant illustrated) Arthur Danto, MAPPLETHORPE, New York, 1992, p. 51 (variant illustrated) ROBERT MAPPLETHORPE: TEN BY TEN, Munich, 1995, pl. 54 (variant illustrated) In his treatment of nudes, Mapplethorpe often employed stylistic devices of lighting and shadow, to achieve an extraordinary luminescence. By cropping LYDIA into an almost abstract image, he not only renders the body impersonal, but also de-eroticizes the nude, which may be seen as a metaphor for Mapplethorpe's personal detachment from women as sexual objects. "It is true that Mapplethorpe confessed to find women unexciting as subjects, and this doubtless can be explained by the fact that they had ceased to engage him sexually. But the relationship that Mapplethorpe entered into with his female subjects is not that different from the one entered into when his subjects were male....The men are treated with the same dignity and distance, and accorded the same artistic respect..." (Danto, ROBERT MAPPLETHORPE, New York 1992 p.314). Please refer to Lot 175 for a similar example of Mapplethorpe's work.