Mapplethorpe: Look at the Pictures
- Director: Fenton Bailey; Randy Barbato
CGiii Comment
Mapplethorpe's estate is worth over $200 million - dying in 1989, Robert is worth more now than he ever was during his life-time.
And, strangely, this film is more about the emperor's new clothes than art.
Curators, critics and connoisseurs...of art...know nothing about art. They do know a thing or two about finance and how to make money out of someone-else's work - it's being going on for generations...and, it will continue and thrive...as long as there are vast amounts of money to be made...by declaring what is [usually] rather mediocre...a masterpiece.
Think: Basquiat. Think: Emin...no, let's not, her work is a joke. Think: Mapplethorpe.
Okay, Robert took a few pretty shots of flowers, willies, some fine portraits (of Patti mostly), willies and then stuck a whip up his arse and photographed himself! Tasteful.
Listening to the curators gush over his images is...galling, embarrassing, pitiful. Those who knew Robert well...state that his images meant nothing more than the image itself...there were no artistic pretensions, no high-brow indulgences...the images were (and will always be) photocopies of what Robert liked to look at, what he liked to do. What he couldn't do...is actually produce his art. He couldn't even develop or print his own film.
So, who is the artist?
Wouldn't we like to know.
An interesting profile of a mediocre [amateur] photographer whose estate is worth a fortune!
What do we little people know? Absolutely nothing.
Trailer...
The(ir) Blurb...
He was a catalyst and an illuminator, but also a magnet for scandal. From an early age Robert Mapplethorpe had but one goal which he single-mindedly pursued: to ‘make it’ not just as an artist but also as an art celebrity. He could not have picked a better time: it is the Manhattan of Warhol’s Factory, of Studio 54 and, following the Stonewall riots, an era of unbridled hedonistic sexuality. His first solo exhibition in 1976 already unveils his topics: erotic depictions, flowers and portraits. He is gaining notoriety through his series of explicitly sexual photographs from the gay sadomasochistic scene as well as nude pictures of black men.