Robert Mapplethorpe

Mapplethorpe was born in the Floral Park neighborhood of Queens, New York City, the son of Joan Dorothy (Maxey) and Harry Irving Mapplethorpe, an electrical engineer.^[3] He was of English, Irish, and German descent and grew up as a Catholic at Our Lady of the Snows Parish. Mapplethorpe attended Martin Van Buren High School, where he graduated in 1963.^[4]

He had three brothers and two sisters. One of his brothers, Edward, later worked for him as an assistant and became a photographer as well.^[5] He attended the Pratt Institute in Brooklyn, where he majored in Graphic Arts.^[6] He dropped out in 1969 before finishing his degree.^[7]

Summarize Timeline Fact Check

In 1967, Mapplethorpe began living with his girlfriend, the artist and musician Patti Smith, who supported him by working in bookstores.^[8][9][10] They created art together and maintained a close friendship throughout Mapplethorpe's life after their romance ended in 1970.^[10][11][12]

In the late 1960s and early 1970s, Mapplethorpe designed and sold handmade jewelry composed of religious and symbolic charms.^[13] His early pieces were made from found materials, but they evolved to include beads, dice, feathers, rabbits' feet, silver skulls, and crosses, reflecting his Baroque sense of style.^[13][14] His jewelry was modeled by Warhol superstars Ultra Violet, Jay Johnson, and Joe Dallesandro.^[15][13] During this period, Mapplethorpe also produced drawings, collages, and found-object sculptures, gradually incorporating photography into his collages.^[16]

Mapplethorpe's boyfriend, David Croland, introduced him to John McKendry, curator of photographs and prints at the Metropolitan Museum of Art.^[14] McKendry invited Mapplethorpe to study photographs in the museum's collection, an experience that fostered his appreciation for fine photographic print.^[14] As a Christmas gift in 1971, McKendry gave him a Polaroid camera, and the following spring introduced him to executives at the Polaroid Corporation in Boston, whose Artist Support Program provided cameras and film to selected artists.^[14]

In 1972, Croland introduced Mapplethorpe to art curator Sam Wagstaff, who became his mentor, patron, and lover.^[17][18][19] When Patti Smith decided to move in with her boyfriend, musician Allen Lanier, Mapplethorpe faced losing the financial support that had enabled him to remain in their apartment.^[20] Wagstaff provided him with $15,000 to purchase a loft at 24 Bond Street, a few doors from Wagstaff's own apartment.^[20]

In January 1973, the Light Gallery in New York City mounted Mapplethorpe's first solo gallery exhibition.^[21]Around this time, Wagstaff gave Mapplethorpe a Hasselblad medium-format camera, and he began taking photographs of a wide circle of friends and acquaintances, including artists, composers, and socialites. With Wagstaff's patronage, Mapplethorpe's career began to gain momentum. At Wagstaff's urging, gallerist Holly Solomon agreed to represent Mapplethorpe after commissioning him to make her portrait.^[20] In February 1977, the Holly Solomon Gallery presented an exhibition of Mapplethorpe's portraits, while his erotic photographs were shown separately at The Kitchen, a nonprofit art space in SoHo.^[20]

Mapplethorpe befriended New Orleans artist George Dureau, whose work had such a profound impact on Mapplethorpe that he restaged many of Dureau's early photographs.^[19]

From 1977 until 1980, Mapplethorpe was the lover of writer and Drummer editor Jack Fritscher.^[17][22] Fritscher introduced him to the Mineshaft, a members-only BDSM gay leather bar and sex club in Manhattan.^[17] Mapplethorpe took many pictures of the Mineshaft, and was at one point its official photographer (... "After dinner I go to the Mineshaft.")^[23][24][25]

In 1980, Mapplethorpe met Milton Moore, who was AWOL from the U.S. Navy, at the gay bar Sneakers in the West Village.^[26] Moore became his muse, and in November 1981, Mapplethorpe rented a studio apartment at 88 Bleecker Street, where he and Moore lived.^[27] By 1982, Mapplethorpe was supporting Moore financially, paying his legal expenses, and encouraging him to study photography at Parsons School of Design.^[27] Moore struggled to maintain employment and experienced increasingly erratic behavior.^[28] In an effort to salvage their relationship, Mapplethorpe traveled with Moore to visit his family in rural Tennessee, hoping to better understand his background.^[29] The visit proved difficult for both men, as Moore was distressed about the derogatory way Mapplethorpe spoke to him.^[29] Several weeks later, Moore left their New York apartment, an event that left Mapplethorpe "grief-stricken."^[30]

Mapplethorpe soon began a relationship with Jack Walls, a clerk-typist from Chicago, who became his muse.^[31][32]

Mapplethorpe and Wagstaff had remained good friends after their romance ended, and Wagstaff gave Mapplethorpe $500,000 to purchase a top-floor loft at 35 West 23rd Street, where he resided and used as a photo-shoot studio.^[33] He kept the Bond Street loft as his darkroom.

After being diagnosed with AIDS in 1986, Mapplethorpe intensified his artistic production despite his declining health.^[34] Mapplethorpe was the principal inheritor of Wagstaff's fortune and executor of his estate after he died in 1987.^[35]

In 1988, the Whitney Museum of American Art in New York City mounted his first major American museum retrospective.^[36] That year, Mapplethorpe selected Patricia Morrisroe to write his biography, which was based on more than 300 interviews with celebrities, critics, lovers, and Mapplethorpe himself.^[37]

On March 9, 1989, Mapplethorpe died at age 42 due to complications from HIV/AIDS in a Boston hospital.^[38] His body was cremated. His ashes are interred at St. John's Cemetery, Queens in New York City, at his mother's gravesite, etched "Maxey".^[39]

Summarize Timeline Fact Check

Mapplethorpe worked primarily in a studio, and almost exclusively produced black-and-white photography, with the exception of some of his later work and his final exhibit "New Colors". His body of work features a wide range of subjects, and the greater part of his work is on erotic imagery. He would incorporate pornography into his work, with the aim of arousing the viewer, but which could also be regarded as high art.^[40][41]

Warhol superstar Jay Johnson was an early muse for Mapplethorpe. Mapplethorpe created the painting Untitled (Baby/Jay Johnson) (1972) from a Polaroid, which he later enlarged and incorporated into his assemblage Jay Kiss (1973).^[16]

Patti Smith, a former girlfriend of Mapplethorpe and a frequent subject in his photography, including a stark, iconic photograph that appears on the cover of Smith's first album, Horses.^[42] His work often made reference to religious or classical imagery, such as a 1975 portrait of Smith from 1986 which recalls Albrecht Dürer's 1500 self-portrait.^[43] Smith later recalled in her book Just Kids:

Robert took areas of dark human consent and made them into art. He worked without apology, investing the homosexual with grandeur, masculinity, and enviable nobility. Without affectation, he created a presence that was wholly male without sacrificing feminine grace. He was not looking to make a political statement or an announcement of his evolving sexual persuasion. He was presenting something new, something not seen or explored as he saw and explored it. Robert sought to elevate aspects of male experience, to imbue homosexuality with mysticism. As Cocteau said of a Genet poem, "His obscenity is never obscene."^[44]

His erotic art explored a wide range of sexual subjects, depicting the BDSM subculture of New York in the 1970s, portrayals of black male nudes, and classical nudes of female bodybuilders.^[40] One of the black models he worked with regularly was Derrick Cross, whose pose for the self-titled image in 1983 has been compared to the Farnese Hercules.^[45] Mapplethorpe was a participant observer for much of his erotic photography, participating in the sexual acts which he was photographing and engaging his models sexually.^[40]

Between 1980 and 1983, Mapplethorpe created over 150 photographs of bodybuilder Lisa Lyon, culminating in the 1983 photobook Lady, Lisa Lyon, published by Viking Press and with text by Bruce Chatwin. In 1983, Mapplethorpe and Pop artist Andy Warhol photographed one another, and Warhol created a painted portrait of Mapplethorpe.^[46] Mapplethorpe photographed Warhol again in 1986.^[46] Other subjects included flowers, especially orchids and calla lilies, children, statues, and celebrities and other artists, including Arnold Schwarzenegger, Louise Bourgeois, Debbie Harry, Susan Sontag, Kathy Acker, Richard Gere, Peter Gabriel, Paul Simon, Grace Jones, Amanda Lear, Laurie Anderson, Iggy Pop, Philip Glass, David Hockney, Cindy Sherman, Joan Armatrading.

The exceptional quality of Mapplethorpe's prints was achieved with the technical assistance of printer Tom Baril from 1979 to 1989, despite a tense working relationship.^[47]

Art market

In 2006, Mapplethorpe's 1986 photograph of Warhol sold for $643,200, making it the most expensive Mapplethorpe photograph ever sold.^[48]

In October 2015, Mapplethorpe's Man in Polyester Suit (1980), depicting his lover Milton Moore in a three-piece suit with his penis exposed, sold at Sotheby's New York for$478,000.^[49] The image was part of Mapplethorpe's "X Portfolio" series, and previously sold for $9,000 in 1992.^[49] It was later sold for $355,600 at Phillips in April 2023.^[50]

In 2017, a 1987 Mapplethorpe self-portrait platinum print was auctioned for £450,000.^[51]

Summarize Timeline Top Qs Fact Check

The Perfect Moment (1989 solo exhibit tour)

Further information: The Perfect Moment

In the summer of 1989, a traveling solo exhibit by Mapplethorpe brought national attention to the issues of public funding for the arts, as well as questions of censorship and the obscene. The Corcoran Gallery of Art in Washington, D.C., agreed to be one of the host museums for the tour. Mapplethorpe decided to show his latest series that he explored shortly before his death. Titled Robert Mapplethorpe: The Perfect Moment, the show included photographs from his "X Portfolio," which featured images of urophagia, gay BDSM and a self-portrait with a bullwhip inserted in his anus.^[52] It also featured photos of two children with exposed genitals.^[53][54]

The show was curated by Janet Kardon of the Institute of Contemporary Art in Philadelphia.^[55][56] The ICA was awarded a grant from the National Endowment for the Arts to support Mapplethorpe's exhibit at the Corcoran Gallery of Art. The Corcoran cancelled the show, terminating its contract with the ICA, because it did not want to get involved in the political issues that it raised, but instead the gallery was pulled into the controversy, which "intensified the debate waged both in the media and in Congress surrounding the NEA's funding of projects perceived by some individuals ... to be inappropriate."^[57]

The hierarchy of the Corcoran and several members of the United States Congress were upset when the works were revealed to them, due to the homoerotic and sadomasochistic themes of some of the work. Though much of his work throughout his career had been regularly displayed in publicly funded exhibitions, conservative and religious organizations such as the American Family Association seized on this exhibition to vocally oppose government support for what they called "nothing more than the sensational presentation of potentially obscene material."^[58]

In June 1989, Pop artist Lowell Blair Nesbitt became involved in the censorship issue. Nesbitt, a long-time friend of Mapplethorpe, revealed that he had a $1.5-million bequest to the museum in his will, but publicly promised that if the museum refused to host the exhibition, he would revoke the bequest. The Corcoran refused and Nesbitt bequeathed the money to the Phillips Collection instead. After the Corcoran refused the Mapplethorpe exhibition, the underwriters of the exhibition went to the nonprofit Washington Project for the Arts,^[59] which showed all the images in its space from July 21 to August 13, 1989, to large crowds.^[60][61]

In 1990, the Contemporary Arts Center in Cincinnati, which had also shown the exhibit, and Dennis Barrie, then-director of the center, were charged with obscenity; photographs that depicted men in sadomasochistic poses were the basis of charges that the museum and its director had pandered obscenity. They were found not guilty by a jury.^[62]

According to the ICA, "The Corcoran's decision sparked a controversial national debate: Should tax dollars support the arts? Who decides what is 'obscene' or 'offensive' in public exhibitions? And if art can be considered a form of free speech, is it a violation of the First Amendment to revoke federal funding on grounds of obscenity? To this day, these questions remain very much at issue."^[55][63] Mapplethorpe became something of a cause célèbre for both sides of the American culture war. Prices for many of the Mapplethorpe photographs doubled and even tripled as a consequence of the attention. The artist's notoriety supposedly also helped the posthumous sale at Christie's auction house of Mapplethorpe's collection of furniture, pottery, silver and works by other artists, which brought about $8 million.^[64]

University of Central England incident

In 1998, the University of Central England was involved in a controversy when a library book by Mapplethorpe was confiscated. A final-year undergraduate student was writing a paper on the work of Mapplethorpe and intended to illustrate the paper with a few photographs made from Mapplethorpe, a book of the photographer's work. She took the film to a local shop to be developed and the staff there informed West Midlands Police because of the unusual nature of the images.^[65][66][67]

The police confiscated the library book from the student and informed the university that two photographs in the book would have to be removed. If the university agreed to the removal (which it did not) the book would be returned. The two photographs, which were deemed possibly prosecutable as obscenity, were "Helmut and Brooks, NYC, 1978", which shows anal fisting, and "Jim and Tom, Sausalito, 1977", which is of a man clad in a dog collar, a leather mask and trousers, urinating into another man's mouth."^[65][66][67]

After a delay of about six months, the affair came to an end when Peter Knight, the Vice-Chancellor of the university, was informed that no legal action would be taken.^[66][67] The book was returned to the university library without removal of the photographs.^[68]

The Black Book

Mapplethorpe's 1986 solo exhibition Black Males and the accompanying book The Black Book generated controversy for their erotic depictions of Black men, with critics arguing that the images were exploitative.^[69][70][71] The photographs are largely phallocentric and sculptural, emphasizing isolated parts of the body. Mapplethorpe aimed to pursue the Platonic ideal through these images.^[72] He stated that he had been sexually involved with "at least 75 percent" of the men featured in the book, several of whom were rumored to have AIDS.^[73] His biographer Patricia Morrisroe said, "He found the n word sexually stimulating, and used it liberally in relation to his lovers and models. It was as if he didn't see them as people but as objects – something that's obvious in his photographs. ... Milton Moore (Man in Polyester Suit) was perhaps the great love of his life, but he considered him a 'primitive.'"^[74][75]

Criticism was the subject of a work by American conceptual artist Glenn Ligon, Notes on the Margins of the Black Book (1991–1993). Ligon juxtaposes Mapplethorpe's 91 images of black men in the 1988 publication Black Book with critical texts and personal reactions about the work to complicate the racial undertones of the imagery.^[76]

American poet and activist Essex Hemphill also expressed criticism in his anthology Brother to Brother (1991). Although he believed that Mapplethorpe's work reflected exceptional talent, Hemphill also believed that it displayed a lack of concern for gay black men, "except as sexual subjects."^[77]

Summarize Timeline Fact Check

In 1992, author Paul Russell dedicated his novel Boys of Life to Mapplethorpe, as well as to Karl Keller and Pier Paolo Pasolini.^[78]

Mapplethorpe: A Biography by Patricia Morrisroe was published by Random House in 1995.^[79] The Washington Post Book World described it as "Mesmerizing ... Morrisroe has succeeded in re-creating the photographer's world of light and dark."^[80] Art critic Arthur C. Danto, writing in The Nation, praised it as "utterly admirable ... The clarity and honesty of Morrisroe's portrait are worthy of its subject."^[81]

Patti Smith published books titled The Coral Sea (1996) and Just Kids (2010). Both were dedicated to Mapplethorpe, and the latter won the 2010 National Book Award for Nonfiction.^[82]

In September 1999, Arena Editions published Pictures, a monograph that reintroduced Mapplethorpe's sex pictures. In 2000, Pictures was seized by two South Australian plain-clothes detectives from an Adelaide bookshop in the belief that the book breached indecency and obscenity laws.^[83] Police sent the book to the Canberra-based Office of Film and Literature Classification after the state Attorney-General's Department deftly decided not to get involved in the mounting publicity storm. Eventually, the OFLC board agreed unanimously that the book, imported from the United States, should remain freely available and unrestricted.^[84]

In May 2007, American writer, director, and producer James Crump directed the documentary film Black White + Gray, which premiered at the 2007 Tribeca Film Festival. It explores the influence Mapplethorpe, curator Sam Wagstaff, and Patti Smith had on the 1970s art scene in New York City.^{[19][85][86][87][88]}

In September 2007, Prestel published Mapplethorpe: Polaroids, a collection of 183 of approximately 1,500 existing Mapplethorpe polaroids.^[89] The book accompanied an exhibition by the Whitney Museum of American Art in May 2008.

In 2008, Robert Mapplethorpe was named by Equality Forum as one of its 31 Icons of the 2008 LGBT History Month.^[90]

In June 2016, Belgian fashion designer Raf Simons debuted his men's Spring 2017 collection inspired by Mapplethorpe's work and featuring several of his photographs printed onto shirts, jackets, and smocks.^[91][92]

The American documentary film, Mapplethorpe: Look at the Pictures, was released in 2016. It was directed and executive produced by Randy Barbato and Fenton Bailey, and produced by Katharina Otto-Bernstein.^{[93][94][95][96][97][98]}

In January 2016, filmmaker Ondi Timoner announced that she was directing a feature about him, Mapplethorpe, with Matt Smith in the lead role.^[99] The film premiered on April 22, 2018, at the Tribeca Film Festival in New York City.^[100]

In 2019 and 2020, the Guggenheim Museum in New York City hosted Implicit Tensions, an exhibition of many of Mapplethorpe's works.^[101]

In collaboration with the Mapplethorpe Foundation, jeweler Gaia Repossi created a jewelry collection inspired by Mapplethorpe in 2021.^[102]

In 2022, Isaac Cole Powell played a character in American Horror Story: NYC named 'Theo Graves' loosely inspired by Mapplethorpe's life as an erotic photographer, relationship with his mentor and art curator Sam Wagstaff, and death from HIV/AIDS complications.^[103]

In May 2026, Troye Sivan attended the Met Gala in an outfit inspired by Mapplethorpe's fashion style.^[104]

Robert Mapplethorpe Foundation

Nearly a year before his death, the ailing Mapplethorpe helped found the Robert Mapplethorpe Foundation, Inc. His vision for the Foundation was that it would be "the appropriate vehicle to protect his work, to advance his creative vision, and to promote the causes he cared about".^[105] Since his death, the Foundation has functioned as his official estate and helped promote his work throughout the world, and has raised and donated millions of dollars to fund medical research in the fight against AIDS and HIV infection.^[105]

In 1991, the Foundation received the Large Nonprofit Organization of the Year award as part of the Pantheon of Leather Awards.^[106] The Foundation donated $1 million towards the 1993 establishment of the Robert Mapplethorpe Residence, a six-story townhouse for long-term residential AIDS treatment on East 17th Street in New York City, in partnership with the Beth Israel Medical Center.^[107] The residence closed in 2015, citing financial difficulties.^[108]

The Foundation also promotes fine art photography at the institutional level.^[105] The Foundation helps determine which galleries represent Mapplethorpe's art.^[109][110] In 2011, the Robert Mapplethorpe Foundation donated the Robert Mapplethorpe Archive, spanning from 1970 to 1989, to the Getty Research Institute.^[111]

In 2021, the Robert Mapplethorpe Foundation collaborated with French jewelry house Repossi on an eight-piece fine jewelry collection inspired by Mapplethorpe's early handmade jewelry.^[112]

• Hollinghurst, Alan; Morgan, Stuart (1983). Robert Mapplethorpe: 1970–1983. London: Institute of Contemporary Arts. ISBN 0-905263-31-6.
• Mapplethorpe, Robert; Chatwin, Bruce (1983). Lady, Lisa Lyon. New York: Viking Press. ISBN 0-670-43012-9.
• Mapplethorpe, Robert (1985). Certain People: A Book of Portraits. Pasadena, CA: Twelvetrees Press. ISBN 0-942642-14-7.
• Mapplethorpe, Robert; Shange, Ntozake (1986). Black Book. New York: St. Martin's Press. ISBN 0-312-08302-5.
• Marshall, Richard; Mapplethorpe, Robert (1986). 50 New York Artists: A Critical Selection of Painters and Sculptors Working in New York. San Francisco: Chronicle Books. ISBN 0-87701-403-5.
• Robert Mapplethorpe. Tokyo: Parco. 1987. ISBN 4-89194-149-9.
• Mapplethorpe Portraits. London: National Portrait Gallery. 1988. ISBN 0-904017-91-5.
• Mapplethorpe, Robert; Didion, Joan (1989). Some Women. Boston: Bulfinch Press. ISBN 0-8212-1716-X.
• Kardon, Janet; Joselit, David; Larson, Kay (1988). Robert Mapplethorpe: The Perfect Moment. Philadelphia: Institute of Contemporary Art, University of Pennsylvania. ISBN 0-88454-046-4.
• Cheim, John (1991). Early Works 1970–1974. New York: Robert Miller Gallery. ISBN 0-944680-36-4.
• Mapplethorpe, Robert; Danto, Arthur Coleman (1992). Mapplethorpe. New York: Random House. ISBN 0-679-40804-5.
• Levas, Dimitri; Sischy, Ingrid (1999). Pictures. Arena Editions. ISBN 1-892041-16-2.
• Celant, Germano; Ippolitov, Arkadiĭ; Vail, Karole P B; Blessing, Jennifer (2004). Robert Mapplethorpe and the Classical Tradition: Photographs and Mannerist Prints. New York: Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum. ISBN 0-89207-312-8.
• Mapplethorpe, Robert (2006). The Complete Flowers. Essay by Herbert Muschamp. New York: teNeues. ISBN 3-8327-9168-X.
• Wolf, Sylvia (2007). Polaroids: Mapplethorpe. Munich and New York: Prestel. ISBN 978-3-7913-3835-4.
• Martineau, Paul; Salvesen, Britt (2016). Robert Mapplethorpe: The Photographs. Los Angeles: J. Paul Getty Museum. ISBN 978-1-60606-469-6.

Summarize Timeline Top Qs Fact Check

1973

• Polaroids, Light Gallery, New York.^[21]

1977

• Flowers, Holly Solomon Gallery, New York.^[113]
• Erotic Pictures, The Kitchen, New York.^[113]
• Portraits, Holly Solomon Gallery, New York.^[113]

1978

• The Chrysler Museum, Norfolk, VA. Catalogue with text by Mario Amaya.^{[114][better source needed]}
• Los Angeles Institute of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles, CA.^[114]

1983

• Lady, Lisa Lyon, Leo Castelli Gallery, New York^[113]
• Robert Mapplethorpe, Centre National d'Art et de Culture Georges Pompidou, Paris.^[113]
• Robert Mapplethorpe, 1970–1983, Institute of Contemporary Arts, London. Traveled to Stills, Edinburgh; Arnolfini, Bristol; Midland Group, Nottingham; and Museum of Modern Art, Oxford. Catalogue with text by Stuart Morgan and Alan Hollinghurst.^[113]
• Robert Mapplethorpe, Fotografie, Centro di Documentazione di Palazzo Fortuny, Venice. Traveled to Palazzo Delle Cento Finestre, Florence (1984). Catalogue with text by Germano Celant.

1987

• Robert Mapplethorpe 1986, Raab Galerie, Berlin; Kicken-Pauseback Galerie, Cologne. Catalogue with interview by Anne Horton.^[113]
• Robert Mapplethorpe, Obalne galerije, Piran, Ljubljana, Yugoslavia. Catalogue with text by Germano Celant.^[113]

1988

• Whitney Museum of American Art, New York^[114]
• Robert Mapplethorpe, the Perfect Moment, Institute of Contemporary Art, Philadelphia; Traveled to Museum of Contemporary Art, Chicago; Washington Project for the Arts, Washington, D.C.; Wadsworth Atheneum, Hartford, Connecticut; University Art Museum, University of California, Berkeley; Contemporary Arts Center, Cincinnati, Ohio; and Institute of Contemporary Art, Boston. Catalogue with text by Janet Kardon, David Joselit, Kay Larson, and Patti Smith.^[114]

1992

• Robert Mapplethorpe, Louisiana Museum of Modern Art, Humlebaek, Denmark; Castello di Rivoli Museo d'Arte Contemporanea, Turin, Italy (1992); Moderna Museet, Stockholm (1992); Museo d'Arte Contemporanea, Prato, Italy (1993); Residence of Ambassador Negroponte, Manila, Philippines (1993); Museo Pecci Prato, Prato, Italy (1993); Turun Taidemuseo, Turku, Finland (1993); Palais des Beaux Arts, Brussels (1993); Tel Aviv Museum of Art, Tel Aviv (1994); Fundació Joan Miró, Barcelona (1994); KunstHaus, Wien, Vienna (1994); Museum of Contemporary Art, Sydney (1995); Art Gallery of Western Australia, Perth (1995); City Gallery Wellington, Wellington, New Zealand (1995); Hayward Gallery, London (1996); Gallery of Photography, Dublin (1996); Museo de Art Moderna, São Paulo(1997); Staatdgalerie, Stuttgart (1997). Catalogue with text by Germano Celant.^[115]
• Robert Mapplethorpe, Tokyo Teien Museum, Tokyo. Curated by Toshio Shimizu. Traveled to ATM Contemporary Art Gallery, Mito, Japan; The Museum of Modern Art, Kamakura, Japan; Nagoya City Art Museum, Nagoya, Japan; The Museum of Modern Art, Shiga, Japan.^[116]

1996

• Les Autoportraits de Mapplethorpe, Galerie Baudoin Lebon, Paris.^[117]

1997

• Robert Mapplethorpe, Mitsukoshi Museum of Art, Shinjuku, Japan. Curated by Richard D. Marshall, Noriko Fuku, and Hiroaki Hayakawa. Traveled to Takashimaya "Grand Hall", Osaka; Fukushima Prefectural Museum of Art, Fukishima; Hokkaido Asahikawa Museum of Art, Asahikawa; Sogo Museum of Art, Yokohama; Marugame Genichiro-Inokuma Museum of Contemporary Art, Kagawa.^[114]

1999

• Robert Mapplethorpe, Centre Cultural La Beneficencia, Valencia, Spain.^[114]

2002

• Robert Mapplethorpe Retrospective, Museum of Contemporary Art, Sapporo, Japan. Curated by Toshio Shimizu.^[115]

2003

• Eye to Eye, Sean Kelly Gallery, New York. Curated by Cindy Sherman.

2004

• Pictures, Pictures, Marc Selwyn Fine Art, Los Angeles. Curated by Catherine Opie.^[118]

2005

• Robert Mapplethorpe and the Classical Tradition: Photographs and Mannerist Prints, Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, New York. Traveled to Deutsche Guggenheim Museum, Berlin; The State Hermitage Museum, St. Petersburg (2005); Moscow House of Photography, Moscow (2005); The Guggenheim Hermitage Museum, Las Vegas (2006–2007).^[119]
• Robert Mapplethorpe, Alison Jacques Gallery, London. Curated by David Hockney.^[114]
• Robert Mapplethorpe, Galeria Fortes Vilaca, São Paulo. Curated by Vik Muniz.^[120]
• Robert Mapplethorpe: Tra Antico e Moderno. Un'antologia, Palazzina della Promotrice delle Belle Arti, Turin, Italy. Curated by Germano Celant.^[121]

2006

• Robert Mapplethorpe, Galerie Thaddaeus Ropac, Salzburg. Curated by Robert Wilson.^[122]
• 2008: Mapplethorpe: Polaroids, Whitney Museum of American Art, New York.^[123] Traveled to: Mary & Leigh Block Museum of Art, Chicago (2009);^[124] Henry Art Gallery, Seattle (2009).^[125]

2009

• Sterling Ruby & Robert Mapplethorpe, Xavier Hufkens Gallery, Brussels.^[126]
• Robert Mapplethorpe: Perfection in Form, Galleria dell'Accademia, Florence. Traveled to: Museo de Arte, Lugano (2010).^[127]
• Artist Rooms Tour: Robert Mapplethorpe, Organized by the Tate/ National Galleries of Scotland/Art Fund, Inverness Museum and Art Gallery, Inverness-shire, UK. 2009. Traveled to: Museums Sheffield, Sheffield, UK (2009); Towner Art Gallery, Eastbourne, UK (2010).^[128]

2010

• Robert Mapplethorpe, NRW-Forum Kultur Wirtschaft, Düsseldorf. Traveled to: C/O Berlin, Berlin (2011); Fotografiska Stockholm, Stockholm (2011)^[129]; Forma Foundation for Photography, Milan (2011); Ludwig Museum, Budapest (2012).^[130]

2011

• Robert Mapplethorpe curated by Pedro Almodóvar, Galeria Elvira Gonzalez, Madrid.^[131]
• Robert Mapplethorpe: Curated by Sofia Coppola, Galerie Thaddaeus Ropac, Paris.^[132]
• Robert Mapplethorpe, Onassis Cultural Centre, Athens, Greece.^[133]

2012

• Artist Rooms Scottish Tour: Robert Mapplethorpe, Dunoon Burgh Hall, Dunoon, UK. Traveled to: The Gallery at Linlithgow Burgh Halls, Linlithgow, UK, Perth Museum & Art Gallery, Perth, UK (2012), Old Gala House, Galashiels, UK (2013).^[134]
• Robert Mapplethorpe: XYZ, Los Angeles County Museum of Art, Los Angeles.^[135]
• In Focus: Robert Mapplethorpe, J. Paul Getty Museum at the Getty Center, Los Angeles.^[136]

2014

• Robert Mapplethorpe, Grand Palais, Paris.^[137] Traveled to: Kiasma Museum of Contemporary Art, Helsinki (2015).^[138]
• Robert Mapplethorpe: Photographs from the Kinsey Institute Collection, Kinsey Institute, Bloomington, Indiana.^[139]

2015

• Warhol & Mapplethorpe: Guise & Dolls, Wadsworth Atheneum Museum of Art, Hartford.^[140]

2016

• Mapplethorpe + Munch, The Munch Museum, Oslo.^[141]
• Robert Mapplethorpe: The Perfect Medium, Los Angeles County Museum of Art and the J. Paul Getty Museum, Los Angeles.^[142][143] Traveled to: The Montreal Museum of Fine Arts, Montreal,^[144] Kunsthal Rotterdam, Rotterdam,^[145] Art Gallery of New South Wales, Sydney (2017).^[146]
• Robert Mapplethorpe: On the Edge, ARoS Aarhus Art Museum, Aarhus, Denmark.^[147]
• Teller on Mapplethorpe, Alison Jacques Gallery, London.^[148]

2017

• Robert Mapplethorpe, Xavier Hufkens, Brussels.^[149]
• Robert Mapplethorpe, a perfectionist, Kunsthal, Rotterdam, Holland.^[150]
• Memento Mori: Robert Mapplethorpe Photographs from the Peter Marino Collection, Chanel Nexus Hall, Tokyo. Traveled to: Kyotographie 2017, Kyoto.^[151]
• Dangerous Art: Queer Show. Haifa Museum of Art. Curated by Svetlana Reingold.^[152]

2018

• Robert Mapplethorpe, Gladstone Gallery, New York. Curated by Roe Ethridge.^[113]
• Robert Mapplethorpe: Pictures, Serralves Foundation, Porto, Portugal.^[153]
• Robert Mapplethorpe. Coreografia per una mostra / Choreography for an Exhibition, Madre museum, Naples, Italy. Curated by Laura Valente and Andrea Viliani.

2019

• Implicit Tensions: Mapplethorpe Now, Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum in New York City. January 25 – July 10, 2019 and July 24, 2019 – January 5, 2020^[154]