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Auction archive: Lot number 17

Robert Mapplethorpe

Estimate
£150,000 - £250,000
ca. US$202,033 - US$336,723
Price realised:
£297,000
ca. US$400,026
Auction archive: Lot number 17

Robert Mapplethorpe

Estimate
£150,000 - £250,000
ca. US$202,033 - US$336,723
Price realised:
£297,000
ca. US$400,026
Beschreibung:

◆ 17 ULTIMATE Robert Mapplethorpe Follow Double Tiger Lily 1977 Unique work, comprising two gelatin silver prints in artist's original silk overmats and frame. Each image: 35.4 x 35.1 cm (13 7/8 x 13 7/8 in.) Frame: 58.3 x 107.5 cm (22 7/8 x 42 3/8 in.) Annotated 'Left' and 'Right', respectively, in pencil on the reverse of each flush-mount. This work is unique.
Provenance Cheim & Read, New York, late 1990s Private Collection, Seoul Exhibited Flowers , Holly Solomon Gallery, New York, 12 - 30 November 1977 Mapplethorpe Retrospective , Whitney Museum of American Art, New York, 27 July - 23 October 1988 Robert Mapplethorpe The Perfect Moment , ICA, Philadelphia, 9 December 1988 - 29 January 1989; Museum of Contemporary Art, Chicago, 25 February - 16 April 1989; Washington Projects for the Arts, Washington, D.C., 20 July - 13 August 1989; Wadsworth Atheneum, Hartford, CT, 21 October - 31 December 1989; University Art Museum, University of California, Berkeley, 17 January - 18 March 1990; Contemporary Arts Center, Cincinnati, OH, 7 April - 21 May 1990; ICA, Boston, 1 August - 4 October 1990 Robert Mapplethorpe , Tokyo Metropolitan Teien Museum, Tokyo, 2 June - 2 July 1992; Contemporary Art Gallery, Ibaraki, 18 July - 3 November 1993; Museum of Modern Art, Kamakura, 9 January - 7 February 1993; Nagoya City Art Museum, Nagoya, 13 February - 4 April 1993; Museum of Modern Art, Shiga, Otsu, 10 April - 23 May 1993; Weston Gallery, Tokyo Literature R. Marshall Robert Mapplethorpe , New York: Whitney Museum of American Art, 1988, p. 58 J. Kardon, Robert Mapplethorpe The Perfect Moment , Philadelphia: ICA, 1989, p. 43 Robert Mapplethorpe , Tokyo: Asahi Shimbun, 1992, p. 68, pl. 26 Altars , London: Jonathan Cape, 1995, p. 63 Pistils , London: Jonathan Cape, 1996, p. 63 Mapplethorpe: The Complete Flowers , Düsseldorf: West Byfleet: teNeues, 2006, pls. 14-15 Mapplethorpe Flora: The Complete Flowers , London: Phaidon, 2016, pp. 280-281 Catalogue Essay ‘I get something out of flowers that other people don’t get… I love the pictures of flowers more than I love real flowers.’ Robert Mapplethorpe In 1977 Robert Mapplethorpe made his first significant impact on the art world with his twin solo shows in New York: Portraits at Holly Solomon Gallery and a selection of male nudes and S&M images at The Kitchen. Later that year, Holly Solomon followed with Flowers , which debuted Double Tiger Lily , 1977, the unique, early masterwork offered here. The total number of works included in the Flowers show is unknown. Aside from Tulips , 1977, which has twice appeared at auction, this is the only other known work from the show to date. Mapplethorpe embraced the sexuality of flowers and they were to become a permanent fixture in his oeuvre. His approach to flowers was similar to the way in which he photographed his human subjects in that he frequently isolated them in the frame as seen here. The elegant and charged lily, the subject of the present work, would feature prominently throughout his floral imagery. In Double Tiger Lily , he juxtaposes the shadowy realms of the left image with a tonally light silk overmat, drawing out the halo of light that encircles the lily’s head. For the right-hand panel, he contrasts the lighter background of the close-up lily with a luxurious black silk overmat, underlining the dramatic nature of the composition. Double Tiger Lily demonstrates not only his exquisite handling of light and shadow but also his desire to reinforce the physicality of the work. At a time when the art market made clear distinctions between art and photography, Mapplethorpe sought to present his photographs as art with his intricate frames. For him, the frame was not merely the means by which to formally present a photograph, but formed a crucial part of his artistic practice. From the early 1970s, Mapplethorpe presented his artwork within expensive, custom designed wood frames and maintained a similarly discerning approach to the mats. He was known to spend hours at Bark Frameworks on Grand Street in New York, examining swatches of silk for the mats. ‘Robert’s frames were really more theatrical than anything else,’ observed owner Jared Bark ‘but the mats also functioned as a door – a door to his inner life more than a window on the world’ ( Mapplethorpe: A Biography , p. 179). Mapplethorpe’s selection of

Auction archive: Lot number 17
Auction:
Datum:
18 May 2018
Auction house:
Phillips
London
Beschreibung:

◆ 17 ULTIMATE Robert Mapplethorpe Follow Double Tiger Lily 1977 Unique work, comprising two gelatin silver prints in artist's original silk overmats and frame. Each image: 35.4 x 35.1 cm (13 7/8 x 13 7/8 in.) Frame: 58.3 x 107.5 cm (22 7/8 x 42 3/8 in.) Annotated 'Left' and 'Right', respectively, in pencil on the reverse of each flush-mount. This work is unique.
Provenance Cheim & Read, New York, late 1990s Private Collection, Seoul Exhibited Flowers , Holly Solomon Gallery, New York, 12 - 30 November 1977 Mapplethorpe Retrospective , Whitney Museum of American Art, New York, 27 July - 23 October 1988 Robert Mapplethorpe The Perfect Moment , ICA, Philadelphia, 9 December 1988 - 29 January 1989; Museum of Contemporary Art, Chicago, 25 February - 16 April 1989; Washington Projects for the Arts, Washington, D.C., 20 July - 13 August 1989; Wadsworth Atheneum, Hartford, CT, 21 October - 31 December 1989; University Art Museum, University of California, Berkeley, 17 January - 18 March 1990; Contemporary Arts Center, Cincinnati, OH, 7 April - 21 May 1990; ICA, Boston, 1 August - 4 October 1990 Robert Mapplethorpe , Tokyo Metropolitan Teien Museum, Tokyo, 2 June - 2 July 1992; Contemporary Art Gallery, Ibaraki, 18 July - 3 November 1993; Museum of Modern Art, Kamakura, 9 January - 7 February 1993; Nagoya City Art Museum, Nagoya, 13 February - 4 April 1993; Museum of Modern Art, Shiga, Otsu, 10 April - 23 May 1993; Weston Gallery, Tokyo Literature R. Marshall Robert Mapplethorpe , New York: Whitney Museum of American Art, 1988, p. 58 J. Kardon, Robert Mapplethorpe The Perfect Moment , Philadelphia: ICA, 1989, p. 43 Robert Mapplethorpe , Tokyo: Asahi Shimbun, 1992, p. 68, pl. 26 Altars , London: Jonathan Cape, 1995, p. 63 Pistils , London: Jonathan Cape, 1996, p. 63 Mapplethorpe: The Complete Flowers , Düsseldorf: West Byfleet: teNeues, 2006, pls. 14-15 Mapplethorpe Flora: The Complete Flowers , London: Phaidon, 2016, pp. 280-281 Catalogue Essay ‘I get something out of flowers that other people don’t get… I love the pictures of flowers more than I love real flowers.’ Robert Mapplethorpe In 1977 Robert Mapplethorpe made his first significant impact on the art world with his twin solo shows in New York: Portraits at Holly Solomon Gallery and a selection of male nudes and S&M images at The Kitchen. Later that year, Holly Solomon followed with Flowers , which debuted Double Tiger Lily , 1977, the unique, early masterwork offered here. The total number of works included in the Flowers show is unknown. Aside from Tulips , 1977, which has twice appeared at auction, this is the only other known work from the show to date. Mapplethorpe embraced the sexuality of flowers and they were to become a permanent fixture in his oeuvre. His approach to flowers was similar to the way in which he photographed his human subjects in that he frequently isolated them in the frame as seen here. The elegant and charged lily, the subject of the present work, would feature prominently throughout his floral imagery. In Double Tiger Lily , he juxtaposes the shadowy realms of the left image with a tonally light silk overmat, drawing out the halo of light that encircles the lily’s head. For the right-hand panel, he contrasts the lighter background of the close-up lily with a luxurious black silk overmat, underlining the dramatic nature of the composition. Double Tiger Lily demonstrates not only his exquisite handling of light and shadow but also his desire to reinforce the physicality of the work. At a time when the art market made clear distinctions between art and photography, Mapplethorpe sought to present his photographs as art with his intricate frames. For him, the frame was not merely the means by which to formally present a photograph, but formed a crucial part of his artistic practice. From the early 1970s, Mapplethorpe presented his artwork within expensive, custom designed wood frames and maintained a similarly discerning approach to the mats. He was known to spend hours at Bark Frameworks on Grand Street in New York, examining swatches of silk for the mats. ‘Robert’s frames were really more theatrical than anything else,’ observed owner Jared Bark ‘but the mats also functioned as a door – a door to his inner life more than a window on the world’ ( Mapplethorpe: A Biography , p. 179). Mapplethorpe’s selection of

Auction archive: Lot number 17
Auction:
Datum:
18 May 2018
Auction house:
Phillips
London
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