{"id":46045,"date":"2009-05-04T21:34:00","date_gmt":"2009-05-05T01:34:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.zeitgeistworld.com\/?p=46045"},"modified":"2019-11-27T21:35:12","modified_gmt":"2019-11-28T02:35:12","slug":"implicit-tensions-mapplethorpe-now-exhibition","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.zeitgeistworld.com\/?p=46045","title":{"rendered":"“Implicit Tensions: Mapplethorpe Now\u201d Exhibition"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
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One of the most critically acclaimed and controversial American artists of the late twentieth century, Robert Mapplethorpe<\/a> created daring and formally rigorous photographs. He is widely known for images that deliberately transgressed social mores and for the censorship debates that transformed him into a symbol of the culture wars in the late 1980s and early 1990s. In the ensuing decades, artists and critics have grappled with Mapplethorpe\u2019s legacy, raising questions about the agency of the photographic subject and interrogating his representations of homoerotic desire, the black male nude, and the female figure. A yearlong exhibition project in two parts, Implicit Tensions: Mapplethorpe Now<\/a><\/strong> explores the full range of the artist\u2019s practice as well as his complex legacy in the field of contemporary art.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In 1993 the Robert Mapplethorpe Foundation gifted the Guggenheim 194 key examples of the artist\u2019s work, as well as a generous financial donation to support their entry into the collection and to name the gallery in which this exhibition is presented. This transformative gift initiated the museum\u2019s photography program and catalyzed its collection of the medium. The first part of Implicit Tensions<\/em> (January 25\u2013July 10, 2019) featured highlights from the Guggenheim\u2019s in-depth Mapplethorpe holdings, including early Polaroids, collages, and mixed-media constructions; iconic, classicizing photographs of male and female nudes; floral still lifes; portraits of artists, celebrities, and acquaintances; explicit depictions of New York\u2019s underground S&M scene; and searingly honest self-portraits.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Alongside a focused selection of Mapplethorpe\u2019s photographs, the second part of Implicit Tensions<\/em> (July 24, 2019\u2013January 5, 2020) showcases the work of Rotimi Fani-Kayode<\/a>, Lyle Ashton Harris<\/a>, Glenn Ligon<\/a>, Zanele Muholi<\/a>, Catherine Opie<\/a>, and Paul Mpagi Sepuya<\/a>, artists who offer expansive approaches to exploring identity through photographic portraiture. Following Mapplethorpe\u2019s death in 1989, Glenn Ligon created Notes on the Margin of the Black Book<\/em> (1991\u201393), an incisive response to Mapplethorpe\u2019s depictions of nude black men. Ligon\u2019s seminal work galvanized critical dialogues around histories of representation by contextualizing these images within larger cultural discussions about race and sexuality. Taking Ligon\u2019s project as a starting point, this presentation traces how artists have variously claimed, diverged from, and critically charted the implications and power dynamics of Mapplethorpe\u2019s images, providing nuanced perspectives about identity and difference. Rather than mapping a trajectory of influence, this exhibition suggests a two-way effect: as these artists create new meanings and possibilities for photographic experimentation on their own terms, they also produce counterpoints that challenge and reframe understandings of Mapplethorpe\u2019s practice. The works on view demonstrate a variety of strategies that have evolved within the field of photography during the last three decades, including the construction of identity through self-portraiture, the affirmation of community through photographic representation, and the conception of art as a vehicle for social advocacy.<\/p>\n\n\n