LOT Phillips de Pury & Company  /  PHOTOGRAPHS PART I  / 

55

ROBERT MAPPLETHORPE (American, 1946-1989) ORCHID

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ROBERT MAPPLETHORPE (American, 1946-1989) ORCHID
ROBERT MAPPLETHORPE (American, 1946-1989) ORCHID "DT 1671 7/7 Orchid 1986" inscribed in black ink on verso artist's signed and dated copyright stamp in black ink on verso dye-transfer print 18 7/8 x 181/2 in. (47.9 x 47 cm) paper: 24 x 20 in. (61 x 50.8 cm) 1986 this print is number 7 from an edition of 7 PROVENANCE Private Collection, LONDON EXHIBITED PHILADELPHIA, Institute for Contemporary Art at the University of Pennsylvania (and five other venues), ROBERT MAPPLETHORPE: THE PERFECT MOMENT, traveling November 9, 1988-August 31, 1990 LITERATURE Patti Smith, ROBERT MAPPLETHORPE, New York, 1987, n.p. (black and white variant illustrated) ARTFORUM, New York, May 1987, front cover (illustrated) Kardon, Janet, David Joselit, and Kay Larson, ROBERT MAPPLETHORPE: THE PERFECT MOMENT, Philadelphia, 1989, p. 85 (illustrated) Arthur C. Danto, MAPPLETHORPE, New York, 1992, p. 237 (black and white variant illustrated) ROBERT MAPPLETHORPE, Tokyo, 1992, p. 152, cat. no. 110 (illustrated) Els Barent, ROBERT MAPPLETHORPE: TEN BY TEN, Munich, 1996, pl. 29 (illustrated) John Ashbery, MAPPLETHORPE: PISTILS, New York, 1996, p. 135 (illustrated) By the late 1980s, Robert Mapplethorpe had gained both acclaim and notoriety for his unflinching photographs of the human body and homosexual subcultures. However, the artist also produced remarkable images of flowers throughout his career, among which the present work may be counted. No less provocative, this body of work exudes an eroticism of its own. Sexy and sensual, these exotic, hothouse specimens flourish beneath near-perfect calibrations of focus, lighting, and composition. As Arthur Danto has eloquently explained, "There is a tension at the heart of Robert Mapplethorpe's art, verging on paradox, between its most distinctive content and its mode of presentation. The content of the work is often sufficiently erotic to be considered pornographic, even by the artist, while the aesthetic of its presentation is chastely classic - it is Dionysiac and Apollonian at once" (Arthur C. Danto, "Playing With the Edge: The Photographic Achievement of Robert Mapplethorpe," MAPPLETHORPE, New York: Random House, 1992, p. 311). This tension is certainly apparent in the present work, which showcases a single orchid against a rigorously geometric background. Emerging from the lower right corner, a slender stem meanders across the print, and is capped by a magnificent bloom. The gentle contours of the petals, veined in shades of pink and green, gain contrasting emphasis from the stark, angular background. Significantly, Mapplethorpe also opposes this orchid to its own shadow. While painting an abstract pattern across the bottom of the photograph, the shadow operates as the orchid's alter ego. This dark, serpentine silhouette lends an ominous edge to our typically buoyant appreciation of flowers. As Janet Kardon has observed, "Mapplethorpe portrays flowers not as benign, pretty objects but powerful sensuous presences; the seductive rendering only thinly disguises their menacing undertone. In addition, the flowers that he chooses to photograph possess a symbolic pungency or threatening form: lilies, cacti, baby's breath, birds of paradise, orchids (the word 'orchid' is derived from the Latin root 'orchis,' which means 'testicle'). These flowers achieve their place in Mapplethorpe's vocabulary because of their iconic presence. A single lily's open petals may be read as an open hand or a manacle. His flowers emerge from darkness to aggressively occupy the photograph's surface; their petals thrust toward the viewer; their erect, larger-than-life stamens appear with the chilling unexpectedness of an open switchblade. His fascination with the dark side, with evil, most obvious in the figure studies, is manifested as well in the flowers" (Janet Kardon, "The Perfect Moment," ROBERT MAPPLETHORPE: THE PERFECT MOMENT, exh. cat., Philadelphia: Institute of Contemporary Art, 1988, pp. 11-12).
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