Robert Mapplethorpe (1946-1989), Self-Portrait

Robert Mapplethorpe (1946-1989)
Self-Portrait
signed and dated 'Robert Mapplethorpe '80' (lower right); numbered '3/15' (lower left); signed and dated '1980 Robert Mapplethorpe' in photographer's copyright credit stamp; titled, inscribed, numbered and dated 'SELF PORTRAIT (WITH MAKE-UP) N.Y. C 1980 3/15' (on the reverse of the flush mount)
gelatin silver print, flush-mounted on board
image: 14 x 14in. (35.5 x 35.5cm.)
sheet: 19 7/8 x 15 7/8in. (50.4 x 40.3cm.)
Photographed in 1980 and printed in 1980, this work is number three from an edition of fifteen plus three artist's proofs

Other gelatin silver prints from the edition are in the collection of the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, New York, the Musée national d'Art moderne - centre Georges Pompidou, Paris; the joint collection of the J. Paul Getty Trust and the Los Angeles County Museum of Art, and the Museum of Contemporary Photography at Columbia College, Chicago.

Special Notice
These lots have been imported from outside the EU for sale using a Temporary Import regime. Import VAT is payable (at 5%) on the Hammer price. VAT is also payable (at 20%) on the buyer’s Premium on a VAT inclusive basis. When a buyer of such a lot has registered an EU address but wishes to export the lot or complete the import into another EU country, he must advise Christie's immediately after the auction.

Provenance
Fraenkel Gallery, San Francisco.
Anon. sale, Grisebach Berlin, 28 November 2012, lot 2143.
Acquired at the above sale by the present owner.

Pre-Lot Text
FOUR SELF-PORTRAITS BY ROBERT MAPPLETHORPE

Literature
K. Wise (ed.), Portrait:Theory: Photographs and Essays by David Attie, Chuck Close, Jan Groover, Evelyn Hofer, Lotte Jacobi, Gerard Malanga, Robert Mapplethorpe and James van der Zee, New York 1981, p. 140 (another example illustrated).
S. Sontag, Robert Mapplethorpe: Certain People: A Book of Portraits, Pasadena 1985 (another example illustrated, unpaged; illustrated on the back cover).
R. Marshall (ed.), Robert Mapplethorpe, New York 1990, p. 205 (unique example illustrated, p. 89).
M. Holborn and D. Levas (eds.), Mapplethorpe, London 1995, p. 44 (another example illustrated).
G. Celant (ed.), Robert Mapplethorpe: Tra antico e moderno: Un' antologia, exh. cat. Turin, Palazzo della Promotrice, 2006, p. 462 (another example illustrated, p. 175).
P. Sterckx, 50 Géants de l’Art Américain, Paris 2007, p. 133 (another example illustrated).
S. Wolf (ed.), Polaroids: Mapplethorpe, exh. cat. New York, Whitney Museum of American Art, 2008, p. 39, fig. 19 (another example illustrated).
R. Flood (ed.), Mapplethorpe X7, Kempen 2011, pp. 87, 150 and 217 (another example illustrated).
R. Koch (ed.), Master Photographers, Paris 2012, p. 293 (another example illustrated).
G. Celant, Mapplethorpe: The Nymph Photography, Milan 2014, p. 189, no. 110 (another example illustrated, p. 134).

Exhibited
Chicago, In a Plain Brown Wrapper Gallery, Robert Mapplethorpe: Black and White Photographs, 1980 (another example exhibited).
New York, Marlborough Gallery, Surrealist Photographic Portraits 1920-1980, 1981, no. 53 (another example illustrated, unpaged).
Edinburgh, Stills, Robert Mapplethorpe 1970 – 1983, 1983-1984, p. 31 (another example exhibited and illustrated). This exhibition later travelled to Bristol, Arnolfini; London, Institute of Contemporary Arts; Nottingham, Midland Group and Oxford, Museum of Modern Art.
Piran, Slovenia, Obalne Galerije, Robert Mapplethorpe fotografije, 1986 (another example exhibited).
Amsterdam, Stedelijk Museum, Robert Mapplethorpe: Ten by Ten, 1988 (another example exhibited). This exhibition later travelled to Paris, Centre national d’art et de culture Georges Pompidou.
Philadelphia, Institute of Contemporary Art, University of Pennsylvania, Robert Mapplethorpe: The Perfect Moment, 1988-1990, p. 121 (another example exhibited and illustrated, p. 79). This exhibition later travelled to Chicago, Museum of Contemporary Art; Washington, Washington Project for the Arts; Hartford, Connecticut, Wadsworth Atheneum; Berkeley, University Art Museum, University of California; Cincinnati, Contemporary Arts Center and Boston, Institute of Contemporary Art.
Riverside, UCR/California Museum of Photography, University of California, The Garden of Earthly Delights: Photographs by Edward Weston and Robert Mapplethorpe, 1995, p. 50 (another example exhibited and illustrated). This exhibition later travelled to Baltimore, The Baltimore Museum of Art and New York, International Center of Photography.
Plymouth, Plymouth Arts Centre, Staging the Self: Self-Portrait Photography 1840s – 1980s, 1986, p. 126 (another example exhibited and illustrated, unpaged).
Pully/Lausanne, Musée d’art contemporain, Fondation Edelman, Mapplethorpe, 1991 (another example exhibited).
Dusseldorf, Kunsthalle Düsseldorf, Mapplethorpe versus Rodin, 1992, p. 45 (another example exhibited and illustrated).
Tokyo, Teien Museum, Robert Mapplethorpe, 1992-1993 (another example exhibited). This exhibition later travelled to Mito, Contemporary Art Gallery; Kamakura, The Museum of Modern Art; Nagoya, Nagoya City Art Museum and Shiga, The Museum of Modern Art.
Monterrey, Museo de Monterrey, Becher Mapplethorpe Sherman, 1992 (another example exhibited).
Humlebaek, Louisiana Museum of Modern Art, Robert Mapplethorpe, curated by Germano Celant, 1992-1997 (another example exhibited). This exhibition later travelled to Venice, Centro di Documentazione di Palazzo Fortuny; Turin, Castello di Rivoli Museo d’Arte Contemporanea; Stockholm, Moderna Museet; Prato, Museo d’Arte Contemporanea; Manila, Residence of Embassador Negroponte; Prato, Museo Pecci Prato; Turku, Finland, Turun Taidemuseo; Brussels, Palais des Beaux Arts; Tel Aviv, Tel Aviv Museum of Art; Barcelona, Fundació Joan Miró; Vienna, KunstHausWien; Sydney, Museum of Contemporary Art; Perth, Art Gallery of Western Australia; Wellington, New Zealand, City Gallery Wellington; London, Hayward Gallery; Dublin, Gallery of Photography; São Paulo, Museo de Art Moderna and Stuttgart, Staatsgalerie.
Paris, Galerie Baudoin Lebon, Les autoportraits de Mapplethorpe, 1996, no. 27 (another example exhibited and illustrated, unpaged).
G. Celant (ed.), Looking at Fashion, exh. cat. Florence, Biennale di Firenze 1996, p. 223 (another example illustrated).
New York, Guggenheim Museum, Rrose is a Rrose is a Rrose: Gender Performance in Photography, 1997, p. 103 (another example exhibited and illustrated).
Sapporo, Japan, Museum of Contemporary Art, Robert Mapplethorpe Retrospective, 2002-2003 (another example exhibited). This exhibition later travelled to Tokyo, Daimaru Museum and Shinsaibashi-Osaka, Daimaru Museum.
New York, Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, Robert Mapplethorpe and the Classical Tradition: Photographs and Mannerist Prints, 2004-2007, p. 34 (another example exhibited and illustrated). This exhibition later travelled to Berlin, Deutsche Guggenheim; St Petersburg, The State Hermitage Museum; Moscow, Moscow House of Photography and Las Vegas, The Guggenheim Hermitage Museum.
Turin, Palazzo della Promotrice, Robert Mapplethorpe: Tra antico e moderno: Un' antologia, 2006, p. 462 (another example exhibited and illustrated, p. 175).
Prien am Chiemseem, Germany, Galerie im Alten Rathaus, Robert Mapplethorpe: Porträts und Erotik, 2006 (another example exhibited). This exhibition later travelled to Klagenfurt, Austria, Stadtgalerie.
Edinburgh, National Galleries of Scotland, The Naked Portrait, 2007 (another example exhibited).
Melbourne, National Gallery of Victoria, Guggenheim Collection: 1940s to Now, 2007 (another example exhibited).
Palma de Mallorca, Es Baluard - Museu d'Art Modern i Contemporani de Palma, Robert Mapplethorpe, 2009, p. 140, no. 28 (another example exhibited and illustrated, unpaged). This exhibition later travelled to Ljubljana, TR3 Gallery and National Gallery and Malaga, CAC Málaga: Centro de Arte Contemporáneo de Málaga.
Prague, Dox Centre for Contemporary Art, Chelsea Hotel: Ghosts of Bohemia, 2009 (another example exhibited).
Buenos Aires, Museo de Arte Latinoamericano de Buenos Aires, Robert Mapplethrope: Eros and Order, 2010 (another example exhibited).
Brussels, Xavier Hufkens, Sterling Ruby / Robert Mapplethorpe, 2010, p. 25, no. 2 (another example exhibited and illustrated).
Prague, Galerie Rudolfinum, Decadence Now! Visions of Excess, 2010 (another example exhibited).
Dusseldorf, NRW-Forum Kultur Wirtschaft, Robert Mapplethorpe, 2010 (another example exhibited).
Paris, Maison Européene de la Photographie, Autour de l’Extreme, 2010-2011. This exhibition later travelled to Rio de Janeiro, Instituto Moreira Salles (another example exhibited).
Berlin, C/O Berlin, Robert Mapplethorpe, 2011 (another example exhibited). This exhibition later travelled to Stockholm, Fotografiska and Milan, Forma Foundation for Photography.
New York, Metropolitan Museum of Art, Regarding Warhol: Fifty Artists, Fifty Years, 2012 (another example exhibited). This exhibition later travelled to Pittsburgh, The Andy Warhol Museum.
New York, Skarstedt Gallery, Robert Mapplethorpe Self-Portraits, 2013.
Paris, Grand Palais, Robert Mapplethorpe, 2014, p. 267, no. 131 (another example exhibited and illustrated, p. 137).
Fort Worth, Modern Art Museum of Fort Worth, Urban Theater: New York Art in the 1980s, 2014-2015 (another example exhibited).
Hartford, Connecticut, Wadsworth Atheneum Museum of Art, Warhol & Mapplethorpe Guise & Dolls, 2015-2016, pl. 74, (another example exhibited and illustrated, p. 131).
Los Angeles, J. Paul Getty Museum at The Getty Center, Robert Mapplethorpe: The Perfect Medium, 2016-2018, p. 306, no. 91 (another example exhibited and illustrated, p. 121). This exhibition later travelled to Los Angeles, Los Angeles County Museum of Art; Montreal, Musée des Beaux-Arts de Montréal and Sydney, Art Gallery of New South Wales.