The Gallerie Nazionali di Arte Antica will host from 15 March to 30 June 2019, in its Galleria Corsini location, the exhibition Robert Mapplethorpe. L’obiettivo sensibile, curated by Flaminia Gennari Santori. The exhibition extends the weaving of a connection between ancient and contemporary art started with the display of Picasso’s Parade in 2017 and the exhibition Eco e Narciso in 2018 and that is becoming a distinctive feature of the strategy outlined by the museum’s management.
The exhibition, which will include forty five works, concentrates on the themes that characterise the production of Robert Mapplethorpe (1946 – 1989), an acclaimed, revolutionary and controversial master of the second half of the 20th century: his study of still life, of landscapes, of classic statuary and of Renaissance composition.
The curator’s decision to organise an exhibition about Robert Mapplethorpe was inspired by the artist’s passion for collecting historic photos, which he shared with his partner Sam Wagstaff, whose collection forms a cornerstone of the photography department of the Getty Museum. The selection of works and their display in the Galleria Corsini highlight aspects of Mapplethorpe’s work that particularly resonate with the gallery itself, conceived as physical and conceptual context for collecting and trigger an unprecedented relationship between the visitors, the works of art of the permanent collection and the environments of the Gallery.
2019 marks the thirtieth anniversary of Robert Mapplethorpe’s death and this initiative, organised in collaboration with the Robert Mapplethorpe Foundation in New York, is part of a series of exhibitions dedicated to the artist: a major retrospective at the Guggenheim in New York and an exhibition at the Museo Madre in Naples (Italy), focused on the intimate performative matrix of the artist’s photographic practice.