Vibert

Artist Robert Mapplethorpe (American, 1946 - 1989)

Date1984

MediumGelatin silver print

DimensionsImage: 15 3/16 × 15 1/4 inches (38.58 × 38.74 cm)
Sheet: 19 3/4 × 15 7/8 inches (50.17 × 40.32 cm)
Mount: 19 3/4 × 15 7/8 inches (50.17 × 40.32 cm)

Credit LineGift of Hallmark Cards, Inc.

Object number2005.27.2790

SignedSigned and dated on sheet recto, lower right, in black pen: "[signature] '84"; Artist's stamp on mount verso, bottom, in black ink with black pen: "© 1984 Robert Mapplethorpe / This photograph was taken in 1984 / and printed in 1984. It may not / be reproduced without written permission / by the photographer [signature]"

InscribedOn mount verso, lower left, in black pen: "1456 4/10 Vibert 1984"

MarkingsOn sheet recto, lower left, in black pen: "4/10"; On mount verso, lower right, in pencil: "RM.306.Y".

Edition/State/Proofed. 4/10

On View

Not on view

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DescriptionImage of a figure's back with a dark vertical shadow down the center and soft shadows intersecting.Gallery Label

Gallery Label

This close-up of a male model’s back reflects one of Robert Mapplethorpe’s primary ways of composing a photograph: “I zero in on the body part that I consider the most perfect part in that particular model.” Mapplethorpe was a classicist. He made photographs in a variety of established genres—portraits, floral still lifes, homoerotic nudes—all with a technically refined attention to beauty. Mapplethorpe was fascinated by the history of photography and appreciated the work of artists such as Baron de Meyer, Edward Weston, and George Platt Lynes.

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