Showing at the Baldwin Gallery will be photographs by legendary artist Robert Mapplethorpe, featuring his celebrated Lisa Lyon imagery. Lisa Lyon was a bodybuilder (somewhat unusual for women at that time) and the artist’s muse for several years during the early 1980s. Her close collaboration with Mapplethorpe resulted in a wide selection of images that capture the graceful elegance of the feminine form in balanced compositions of perfect stillness. These photographs utilize black, white and grey shades to reveal precisely detailed tonal nuances. While some are anatomically focused, others place the human figure within sublime natural landscapes. The delicate play of shadow and light depicts the inherent eroticism and power of the female figure. Going far beyond physical allure, these serene, neoclassical images assure the late artist’s place in the pantheon of photographic masters.
