Put together in collaboration with the artist’s estate, the exhibition Friends and Acquaintances presents a selection of 25 mostly early photography of Robert Mapplethorpe’s close circle of friends and acquaintances, some of which have never before been shown publicly. These male portraits show a special inner tension and a great individual, psychological directness of expression that is rare in Mapplethorpe. They exhibit nothing of fascination with celebrity and often contradict Mapplethorpe’s tendency to interpret the face or the body as pure form.
