Robert Mapplethorpe and gender dynamics

Photographs & Polaroids at Charles Riva in Brussels focuses on the two women playing an important role throughout Mapplethorpe’s career – the rock singer/poet Patti Smith and the bodybuilder Lisa Lyon – and on a few members of the New York gay and SM scene.

Through these subjects, Mapplethorpe projected his ambiguous relationship with the human body and sexuality, mixing both male and female characteristics.

Smith was Mapplethorpe’s muse and accomplice straight from when she arrived in New York at the end of the 1960s. The couple lived the boho life in worn-out rental rooms and the infamous Chelsea Hotel.

They were lovers until Mapplethorpe came out of the closet, then stayed friends. When Smith released her iconic debut Horses, it was Mapplethorpe who created the legendary cover shoot, introducing her androgynous style to the world, as the exhibition shows.

Lyon (pictured) posed for Mapplethorpe many times, and though she was trained by Arnold Schwarzenegger – another iconic subject on show here – she rarely adopted the stereotypical macho poses of bodybuilders. Her outfits were instead inspired by sadomasochism.

Mapplethorpe’s Polaroids of male nudes, meanwhile, have a more theatrical appeal, as they were inspired by classic architecture and sculpture. The photographer was always in search of the perfect line.

The exhibition demonstrates that what created a scandal in the 1970s is now historical –  and even tongue-in-cheek – documentation of a particular generation and an era in American underground culture. Mapplethorpe illustrated a scene that would have been otherwise inaccessible to general audiences. 

Until 28 February at Charles Riva Collection, Brussels

photo copyright Robert Mapplethorpe Foundation, used with permission