His work featured an array of subjects, including celebrity portraits, male and female nudes , self-portraits, and still-life images. Mapplethorpe's exhibition, Robert Mapplethorpe: The Perfect Moment , sparked a debate in the United States concerning both use of public funds for "obscene" artwork and the Constitutional limits of free speech in the United States.
One of his brothers, Edward, later worked for him as an assistant and became a photographer as well. Mapplethorpe lived with his girlfriend, the artist and musician Patti Smith , from to , [ 6 ] and she supported him [ 7 ] by working in bookstores. He also designed and sold his own jewelry, which was worn by Warhol superstar Joe Dallesandro. In , Mapplethorpe met art curator Sam Wagstaff , who would become his mentor, lover, [ 14 ] patron, and lifetime companion.
During this time, he became friends with New Orleans artist George Dureau , whose work had such a profound impact on Mapplethorpe that he restaged many of Dureau's early photographs. From until , Mapplethorpe was the lover of writer and Drummer editor Jack Fritscher , [ 16 ] who introduced him to the Mineshaft a members-only BDSM gay leather bar and sex club in Manhattan. By the s, Mapplethorpe's subject matter focused on statuesque male and female nudes, delicate flower still lifes, and highly formal portraits of artists and celebrities.
Mapplethorpe's first studio was at 24 Bond Street in Manhattan. In the s, Wagstaff bought a top-floor loft at 35 West 23rd Street for Robert, where he resided, also using it as a photo-shoot studio. In , Mapplethorpe selected Patricia Morrisroe to write his biography, which was based on more than interviews with celebrities, critics, lovers, and Mapplethorpe himself.
His body was cremated, and his ashes are interred at St. Nearly a year before his death, the ailing Mapplethorpe helped found the Robert Mapplethorpe Foundation, Inc. His vision for the Foundation was that it would be "the appropriate vehicle to protect his work, to advance his creative vision, and to promote the causes he cared about". Mapplethorpe worked primarily in a studio, and almost exclusively produced black-and-white photography, with the exception of some of his later work and his final exhibit "New Colors".
