Mapplethorpe and the flower: radical sexuality and the limits of control

Abstract

Vast tracts of criticism have been devoted to Robert Mapplethorpe's infamous persona as a sexual outlaw and to his more notorious photographs, especially his S and M imagery. In 'Mapplethorpe and the Flower', Derek Conrad Murray refocuses this critical gaze and produces the first book-length examination of the artist's flower photographs. Mapplethorpe was a dedicated and disciplined formalist, who was committed to identifying what was most beautiful about his subject and whose precise and controlled photography belied his permissive public image. In this book, Murray offers the exciting interpretation that the flower images represent the apogee of Mapplethorpe's marriage of formal sophistication with his own conceptual bravado. He thus allows for a provocative new reading of this fascinating artist, which challenges the myth that has grown around him.