Emphasizing Invisibility and Poetic Simplicity:
Understanding Robert Mapplethorpe’s Work in Relation to Asian Painting
Today the public may know more about elements of Robert Mapplethorpe’s personal biography—for example, his homosexuality and the triumphs and tragedies of his life—than they know of his deeply personal approach to art. Unfortunately, we still do not know enough about the philosophy and aesthetics underlying the choices he made in his work. We might gain some understanding, however, by noting that Mapplethorpe’s photographs share an aesthetic sensibility and ideology with traditional Asian paintings—in that both emphasize invisibility and are stylistically characterized by a poetic simplicity, an economy of expression. An awareness of the function and meaning of space in Asian paintings is particularly valuable for understanding Mapplethorpe’s photographs. Rather than considering the various sociopolitical elements informing Mapplethorpe’s photography, this online exhibition will examine more fundamentally aesthetic notions, such as beauty and composition.
Emphasizing Invisibility
An abundance of empty space typifies Asian art. Air in the mountains, or central white spaces and clouds, create a zone of calm within paintings and simultaneously offer viewers a chance to participate in the artistic process, as they relentlessly pursue a perfection that is inherently incomplete. Unlike the common Western perception of empty space as flat, inert, and lifeless, Asian landscape paintings use voids to represent dynamic and active spaces linking what is visible to the invisible, allegorically symbolizing a harmony between each composition’s subject and the universe. As such, the paintings become embodiments of specific moments in time; yet concurrently represent a potential flow of time created by the expressive use of empty space. This duality of meaning in Asian painting invites viewers to experience the essence of the subjects in relation to time and space on both physical and meditative levels.
Regardless of subject type, many of Mapplethorpe’s photographs demonstrate a careful allotment of space, as the interaction of his subjects within given spaces allows the subjects to identify and define each other. His intended voids become part of his formal language; Chest (Fig. 1), a composition of four cubical panels, leaves the top right panel virtually empty. A portrait of Brice Marden (Fig. 2) consists of three windowed frames and again leaves one window totally empty. This anticipated composition could be traced from the popular form of Asian screen paintings (Fig. 3). The four panels of Landscape Screens from 17th-century Japan attend to blank space and an exquisite modulation of painting, creating a space at once grand and sophisticated. Once again, the composition of this painting emphasizes blank space and establishes a tension based on the framing and format. Upon encountering the work, viewers are thrown into a psychological struggle to fill the empty panel with an image of the remaining section of chest. A lack of physical representation in the panel strengthens the chest’s identity through power of suggestion and acknowledgment of memory, while its validity is being challenged in reaction to the premeditated incompleteness. The panel is empty, yet complete, infinitely capable and restrictive. As with many Asian paintings, the viewer must fill in the unfinished space; this same premise is a primary foundation of Mapplethorpe’s aesthetic goals.
Spatially, Mapplethorpe’s photographs expand and contract by their use of empty space. Departing from simple representative characteristics of photography—meaning that the subject is frozen and fixed in time—his photographs often take a 360-degree turn. Viewers first focus on the object, then space, then the interaction between space and object, finally returning to the object as the main subject. The focus of Mapplethorpe’s flower-themed photographs lies in the empty space, a visualization of the concept of infinitude and meditation by emptying one’s mind, (Fig 4) In Orchids, 1985 (Fig. 5), a blue bowl holds a delicate orchid in full bloom. Although flowers serve as a traditional subject for still life in Western painting, Mapplethorpe’s flower-themed works have a particular flair for intentionally manipulating empty space. This particular photograph shows a white wall extending upwards into infinity; this seemingly empty, negative, unfinished, and untouched space is charged with an invisible dynamic energy and takes on the quality of meditative emptiness so evident in Asian brush paintings; (Fig. 6). Such a background is as important as the foregrounded object for creating a photographic subject. This empty background extends the photograph beyond the frame of the visual field, creating what Roland Barthes called a “blind field,” which gives a photograph the potential to communicate beyond what is simply visible on paper.[1] In this way, Mapplethorpe’s use of empty space achieves a timeless harmony simultaneously within and beyond the picture frame.
Poetic Simplicity
Once upon a time, there was a father and a son. One day, the old father asked his son to “do” their backyard. When his son finished sweeping the yard, his father was not quite satisfied with the result. “It is not done yet. Do it again.” When the son got tired of sweeping the yard, he complained, “Father! I have cleared the entire yard. There is not even a single speck of dust. Why do you keep saying that it is not done yet?” Then, the father came out to the yard, and shook one of the maple trees. Suddenly, there were colorful leaves spread over the yard.
The preceding episode, an extract from a Korean folk tale, asks us to contemplate the question, “What is artistic beauty in life?” The boy’s father does not want his son to merely complete a chore. He expects the boy to discover that beauty enters life naturally; the newly fallen leaves are the finishing touches that complete the yard as an artistic entity. Knocking the leaves down is the father’s artistic expression of how a yard is created. Mapplethorpe’s still life and portrait photographs share a similar aesthetic sensibility and ideology in the presence of two seemingly incompatible qualities—directness and ambiguity.
Another key element for understanding Mapplethorpe’s work in relation to Asian painting is recognizing the coexistence of spatial clarity and ambiguity in his photographs. His figures have the stark essence of two-dimensional objects, while simultaneously disappearing into the background. Mapplethorpe’s Joanne Russell, 1986 and Self Portrait, 1988 (Fig. 7), are portraits done in silhouette shapes. Rather than merely photographing Russell, or himself, he objectifies figures, equating Russell’s face with a decorative pin on her chest, or his own with the skull head cane, positioning all these elements as floating objects within black space. Thus the space in the photograph becomes a second subject, fluid elements that both separate and objectify the subject, all the while intimately engaging the objects within and beyond the photograph. Mapplethorpe’s nude photographs and high-contrast portraits manifest a simultaneous presence of visual clarity and ambiguity. In his photographs, empty space separates and blends objects, and the object becomes almost inseparable from the invisible in space, even as an image remains in perfect focus.
Oriental painting indicates the temporality of life by emphasizing the passage of time that is evident in each brush stroke. Just as an Asian painter uses a brush, Mapplethorpe implies movement in time and space with a stroke of light in the following works: Lisa Marie, 1987, Lydia Cheng, 1985, Lisa Lyon, 1982, Tit Profile, 1980, and New York City Contemporary Ballet, 1980 (Fig. 8). The light in these works is a mobile element that serves to juxtapose the concept of a “still life” with the visual experience of speed. In such contrast, Mapplethorpe instills a poetic simplicity that becomes essential to his studio photography. The characters in Japanese calligraphy carry a deep significance in their visible shape alone and share a similar sensibility. The boneless style of brushwork is rough and spontaneous, conveying a great sense of movement (Fig. 9), much like a studio light in Mapplethorpe’s work.
Mapplethorpe also manipulates light to stillness, as illustrated in Self Portrait, 1975 and Parrot Tulips, 1988 (Fig. 10). Both these images are of a painterly quality, surrounded by space highly celebrated with light. The light acts as pigment, highlighting the artistry inherent in the contours of the object and the space that surrounds them. Much like the fallen maple leaves in the foregoing fable, Mapplethorpe meticulously uses simple elements such as “light and space” in seemingly free and banal manners that ultimately create poetic beauty. As in life itself, the methodology is direct and simple, yet the resulting images convey a complex multitude of layers and meanings. With light, space, simplicity, and ambiguity, Robert Mapplethorpe gives definite forms to the essence of his subjects.
While recognizing the sociopolitical issues addressed in Mapplethorpe’s photograph’s is essential for appreciating his message, acknowledging his compositional virtuosity is also essential and must not be brushed aside. Viewing his work in the context of traditional Asian painting sheds light on his aesthetic principles. The fundamental beauty and simplicity in his compositions offer a stark but fitting counterpoint to the aggressiveness of his topics. It also brings a fruitful line of inquiry to the rich and complex personal iconography that evolved over the course of Mapplethorpe’s short life.
Click here to view all pictures in thumbnail version
[1] Barthes, Roland, Camera Lucida, trans. Richard Howard, New York: Hill and Wang, 1980, p. 57.
Checklist of works:
MAP# DT NE: Orchids, 1985
MAP# 1853: Parrot Tulips, 1988
MAP# 142: Tulip, 1977
MAP# 138: Self Portrait, 1975
MAP# 1860: Self Portrait, 1988
MAP# 1816: Lisa Marie, 1987
MAP# 1572: Lydia Cheng, 1985
MAP# 1714: Joanne Russell, 1986
MAP# 1867: Andy Warhol, 1986
MAP# UC005: Chest, 1987
MAP# UC 049: Brice Marden, 1976
MAP# U302: Self Portrait, 1974
MAP# 765: Lisa Lyon, 1982
MAP# 128: Lucinda Childs, 1977
MAP# 157: American Flag, 1977
MAP# 225: Ariel Phillips, 1979
MAP# 441: Patti Smith, 1975
MAP# 508: Tit Profile, 1980
MAP# 511: Peter Reed, 1980
MAP# 546: New York City Contemporary Ballet, 1980
Landscape Scenes:
Daitokuji, Kyoto, 1641
Fusuma Panels for the Abbot’s Quarters of the Honbo, Daitokuji
Four panels, ink on paper
Each: 70.4(H) x 35.8(W) inches (178.9 x 91.0 cm)
Courtesy of Tokyo Metropolitan Art Museum
Lee Ha-Ung (1820-1898)
Orchids and Rock
Ten-panel folding screen, ink on silk
© 1996 Koran Studies Institute, Korea University, Seoul
Kang Se-Hwang (1713-1791)
Four Gentlemen (Orchid)
Ink on paper
© 1996 Koran Studies Institute, Korea University, Seoul
Jiun Onko (1718-1804)
Two Characters: “Shinnyo”
Hanging scroll
11.8(H) x 19(W) inches (30 x 48.3 cm)
Courtesy of Tokyo Metropolitan Art Museum
Calligraphy, “Yagasu Shoka no Tsuki”, 1668
Hanging scroll, ink on paper
50.5(H) x 10.5(W) inches (128.3 x 26.8cm)
Private Collection
Courtesy of Tokyo Metropolitan Art Museum