Art is really really great… for Porn!
Guardian Unlimited Arts | Arts features | Robert Mapplethorpe’s photos:
If Mapplethorpe’s art were a statement, what would it say? That Catholic guilt begets powerful images? That black bodies photograph better than white ones? That the rich often end up looking half mad? That photos of heavy-duty consensual sadomasochistic sex may be alarming and not for faint hearts, but they are a lot more fun to look at than all those flowers he insisted on photographing?
There’s a new exhibition of Mapplethorpe’s work in Edinburgh that is raising some interesting questions about the artist’s choices and subject matter. Mapplethorpe is one of the iconographic photographers of the 80′s who shocked the world with his very confronting and suggestive images. He still wins the prize for most uncomfortable self portrait In my opinion..
Mapplethorpe fits one of the classic artistic stereotypes. He died young, created controversy, had a unique style and pushed boundaries. at times he put himself and his own image on the firing line to further his art. Was it worth it? well, he will live forever. I think he knew exactly what he was doing. he created an atmosphere, an image and made himself a star. Vilified or loved, his image (yes the one with the bullwhip) will be synonymous with the fine line between art and pornography.
I think there aren’t many pioneers of art these days, as our boundaries grow broader and we accept more than ever before there are less walls to break down, less ways to shock people. we are becoming desensitized. I think it is due to artists like Mapplethorpe that we have such a broad arena, but the pendulum swung one way and now is at the other end of more subtle works. I guess history will be the judge as to whether shock or subtle wins in the end.
Just a further note, I never understood why people got so shocked by Mapplethorpe’s works, Bosch painted scenes that were just as graphic and anally retentive (heh). The Garden of Earthly Delights shows many scenes of similar things (in both heaven and hell.. he had some interesting notions did Bosch). If you compare garden of earthly delights and Mapplethorpe’s famous self portrait you will notice a certain fixation. Mapplethorpe’s is larger but Bosch uses it more.. 
Tags: Art, artist, mappelthorpe, porn
Letting it out
Things have been somewhat emotional lately, and a recent movie kinda made me tap into some really biiiig issues I am not going to get into here. Now while freakouts are very harsh and upsetting when I can run off into my studio and pour them out in art.
Drawing is especially good for this because I can let go and receive some instant results. I don’t need to setup or prepare, just to unleash everything on the paper. It is such a raw medium I think it can often capture an energy that painting might lose through overworking.
I think this has a lot of different interpretations depending on your mindset. It’s harsh and nasty, not a ‘nice’ piece, but It has been an image that’s been kicking around in my head for years and it needed to come out. another excising. It’s me at my most exposed (well, except for the pain painting) and shows my feelings about a lot of things, not necessarily just my original intention. I drew a lot of comfort from creating this, Like I have let a demon out.
One key question might be why I didn’t make the figure a nude. For me it was almost more exposed with clothes on, like the clothes are an insubstantial armor. to draw her nude would be too literal, too obvious. The clothes are a symbol in a way of all the things we draw about ourselves to keep our personal demons out and how they don’t really work.
Tags: art, Drawing, emotive, Figurative
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