Exhibitions

Polaroids: Mapplethorpe

January 13 -April 5, 2009
Alsdorf Gallery

Robert Mapplethorpe, Untitled (self-portrait), 1970/73, Polaroid. Mary and Leigh Block Museum of Art, Northwestern University, Gift of the Robert Mapplethorpe Foundation, New York, 2007.12. © Robert Mapplethorpe Foundation. Used by permission.

Explore how Robert Mapplethorpe, one of the most celebrated and controversial artists of our time, learned to see photographically through the lens of the instant camera.

Taken between 1970 and 1975 before Mapplethorpe had developed his mature style, the more than 90 Polaroid pictures in this exhibition anticipate the themes and subjects of Mapplethorpe's later work — portraiture, sexuality, the classical beauty of the human body — with a spontaneity and immediacy that is inherent to instant photography.

Read a story about this exhibition in Time Out Chicago or reviews in The Chicago Tribune and Chicago Sun-Times.

Some of the works in this exhibition may not be suitable for all audiences.

Click on the picture for a slideshow. (Requires Adobe Flash Player)

Related Events

• Musician and poet Patti Smith, a member of the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, a subject of many Mapplethorpe photographs, and a friend and collaborator of the artist, attended a Block Cinema screening of the documentary Patti Smith: Dream of Life at 8 pm on Friday, January 30. Smith and the film's director, photographer Steven Sebring, participated in a post-film conversation with Jim DeRogatis, pop music critic for the Chicago Sun-Times and co-host of Sound Opinions. A video of their conversation is available on the Block Museum's podcast page.
  
  
• Three American Photographers: In Depth. The Block explores the work of Robert Mapplethorpe, John Swope and Gordon Parks this year with a series of educational programs. Learn more about the photographers and upcoming events on our Three American Photographers page.
  
  
• Tours. Free guided tours of Polaroids: Mapplethorpe and the exhibition From Michelangelo to Annibale Carracci: A Century of Italian Drawings from the Prado will take place Saturdays and Sundays at 2 pm from January 24 to April 5.

• The Times of Robert Mapplethorpe. Block Cinema presents a film series exploring the American and queer cultures in which Mapplethorpe lived and died. Screenings include a double feature of Mapplethorpe's 1978 short film Still Moving and Black, White + Grey, a documentary about Mapplethorpe and his lover and patron, Sam Wagstaff, at 8 pm on Friday, March 6.

• Gallery Talk. Block Museum senior curator Debora Wood discuss the exhibition in our Alsdorf Gallery. Thursday, February 26, 6 pm.

• Robert Mapplethorpe: Artist and Activist. A panel discussion with photographer Catherine Opie, Polaroids: Mapplethorpe curator Sylvia Wolf, University of Maryland professor Jeffrey McCune Jr., former Robert Mapplethorpe Foundation collections consultant Marisa Cardinale, and Northwestern University art theory and practice professor Lane Relyea. Saturday, March 7, 2 to 4 pm. More information on our Three American Photographers page.

Polaroids: Mapplethorpe is organized by the Whitney Museum of American Art, New York, in collaboration with the Robert Mapplethorpe Foundation, New York. Its presentation at the Block Museum and related programming is generously supported by the Alice Kaplan Institute for the Humanities and Gender Studies Program, Northwestern University; Alsdorf Endowment; the Illinois Arts Council, a state agency; Myers Foundations; and Terra Foundation for American Art.