Guggenheim will open Implicit Tensions: Mapplethorpe Now

From January 25 to July 10, 2019 the public can visit the show dedicated to Robert Mapplethorpe (1946-1989) at the Guggenheim Museum in New York City. Considered as one of the most controversial artists of the late twentieth century his works are an important legacy in the representation and self-representation of the portrait in contemporary photography. The museum received, in 1993, a generous gift of approximately two hundred photographs and unique objects from the Robert Mapplethorpe Foundation, creating one of the most comprehensive public repositories in the world of this important artist's work. In 2019, thirty years after the artist's death, the Guggenheim will celebrate the sustained legacy of his work with a yearlong exhibition conceived in two sequential parts in the museum's Mapplethorpe Gallery on Tower Level 4. Implicit Tensions: Mapplethorpe Now is organized by Lauren Hinkson, Associate Curator, Collections and Susan Thompson, Associate Curator with Levi Prombaum, Curatorial Assistant, Collections. The first phase of the exhibition will feature an installation of highlights from the Guggenheim's rich collection of Mapplethorpe holdings, including selections from the artist's early Polaroids, collages, and mixed-media constructions to his iconic, classicizing photographs of male and female nudes, flowers, and statuary; his portraits of artists, celebrities, and acquaintances; his more explicit depictions of the S&M underground; and some of his best-known self-portraits. The second phase will address the artist's resounding impact on the field of contemporary portraiture and self-representation. It will feature contemporary artists from the Guggenheim's collection who either actively engage with and reference Mapplethorpe's work or whose approach to picturing the body and exploring identity through portraiture finds resonances in Mapplethorpe's oeuvre. For more information visit: https://www.guggenheim.org/exhibition/mapplethorpe