Robert Mapplethorpe
Self Portrait

Self Portrait

© Robert Mapplethorpe Foundation. Used by permission.

Self Portrait
Self Portrait
CultureAmerican
Titles
  • Self Portrait
Date1988
PlaceNew York, New York, United States
MediumGelatin silver print
DimensionsImage: 23 1/8 × 19 1/4 in. (58.7 × 48.9 cm)
Sheet: 23 3/4 × 20 in. (60.3 × 50.8 cm)
Credit LineGift of Manfred Heiting, The Manfred Heiting Collection
Object number2002.1600
Non exposé

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Department
Photography
Object Type
Description

Both famous and infamous for his photographs of gay
sadomasochistic subculture, Robert Mapplethorpe produced self-portraits throughout his
career, beginning in the early 1970s. His 1978 self-portrait with a bullwhip
would become a lightning rod for the Culture Wars of the early 1990s, but this
self-portrait, made a decade later, struck a different note. Taken just months
before Mapplethorpe died of AIDS, it is a haunting and defiant portrait, cloaked
in darkness. Focusing the camera on the skull-topped cane gripped in his right hand,
Mapplethorpe sent his own gaunt, pale face into soft focus, creating an
otherworldly distance between himself and the forcefulness of death’s
personification.



Provenance Research Ongoing Exhibition History"Self, Model, and Self as Other," The Museum of Fine Arts, Houston,13 July – 29 September, 2013.
Inscriptions, Signatures and Marks
Stamped in black, verso, lower center (with black ink insertions): "© 1988 Robert Mapplethorpe / This photograph was taken in 1988 / and printed in 1988. It may not / be reproduced without written permission / by the photographer [signature]"

Inscribed in black, verso, lower left: "1860 Self Portrait, 1988 8/10"
Inscribed in pencil, verso, lower left: "RMG M8809.217-C"
Signed in black, verso, lower center

Cataloguing data may change with further research.

If you have questions about this work of art or the MFAH Online Collection please contact us.

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