Robert Mapplethorpe

flush-mounted, the photographer's estate stamp, signed and dated by Michael Ward Stout, Executor of the Mapplethorpe Estate, and titled, dated, numbered '7/10,' and inscribed [MAP] '1654' in an unidentified hand in ink on the reverse, in a frame designed to the photographer's specifications, a Robert Miller Gallery, New York, label on the reverse, 1986, printed in 1987, no. 7 in an edition of 10

Robert Mapplethorpe and Janet Kardon, The Perfect Moment (Philadelphia: Institute of Contemporary Art, University of Pennsylvania, 1988, in conjunction with the exhibition), cover

Robert Mapplethorpe: The Complete Flowers (New York and Dusseldorf: The Robert Mapplethorpe Foundation and teNeus Publishing Company, 2007), pl. 125

Germano Celant, Arkady Ippolitov, and Karole Vail, Robert Mapplethorpe and the Classical Tradition: Photographs and Mannerist Prints (New York and Berlin: The Solomon R. Guggenheim Foundation, 2004, in conjunction with the exhibition), pl. 60

Mark Holborn and Dmitri Levas, eds., Mapplethorpe (New York: The Robert Mapplethorpe Foundation and Random House, 1992), p. 254

Mark Holborn and Dmitri Levas, eds., Mapplethorpe: Pistils (New York: The Robert Mapplethorpe Foundation and Random House, 1996), p. 117

This photograph is in excellent condition. It is on paper with a very slightly glossy surface.
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Robert Mapplethorpe's iconic Calla Lily, made at the peak of his abilities as a photographer and at the height of his career, served as the cover image for The Perfect Moment, the catalogue of the most important exhibition of the photographer's work and one of the most controversial museum shows of the twentieth century. The Perfect Moment became a lightning rod for artistic freedom in the United States when images in the show were deemed obscene by conservative lawmakers, led by Senator Jesse Helms, who, on the floor of the U. S. Senate, delivered an impassioned speech against the photographs. The resulting controversy--which played out against the grim backdrop of the AIDS crisis and Mapplethorpe's own recent death from the disease--encompassed debates about freedom of expression, obscenity, and government funding for the arts. 

Fueled by worldwide media coverage, the controversy surrounding The Perfect Moment reached a new level when the Corcoran Gallery of Art in Washington, D. C., abruptly cancelled its plans to show the exhibition.  As Senator Helms pressed more stridently in Congress for tighter controls on grant funding from the National Endowment for the Arts, pressure mounted in Cincinnati for the Contemporary Arts Center there to also cancel the show.  When the Center's director Dennis Barrie refused, the Center was raided by police, and he and his institution were charged with obscenity.  In the much-anticipated trial that followed, Barrie and the Contemporary Arts Center were ultimately acquitted by the jury, who upheld the Center's right to exhibit the photographs.  The sensational media coverage of The Perfect Moment and the trial that followed placed Mapplethorpe firmly on the international stage as a standard-bearer for artistic integrity. 

As an artist and a photographer, Mapplethorpe was, above all, a master of beauty. His attention to detail, his gifts for lighting and composition, and his exacting craftsmanship transformed each object before his camera into an idealized symbol.  His flower images, exemplified by the Calla Lily offered here, are the essence of 'the perfect moment' and have become the most enduring aspect of his work in the decades that have followed. 

The signature photograph of The Perfect Moment exhibition, the Calla has retained its position over many years as a key image in the photographer's oeuvre.  It has been included in numerous museum exhibitions of Mapplethorpe's work worldwide and is reproduced in all major monographs on the photographer.  A print of the image is in the permanent collection of the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum.