Alistair Butler

1977–1980

A relationship with Jack Fritscher and the Mineshaft

From 1977 to 1980 Mapplethorpe is the lover of the writer and Drummer editor Jack Fritscher, who introduces him to the Mineshaft, a members-only gay bar and sex club in Manhattan devoted to BDSM.

February 1978

An exhibition at the Lowinsky Gallery in San Francisco

Mapplethorpe tells Warhol he is going to San Francisco for his upcoming show and a month-long “sex vacation”; the Simon Lowinsky Gallery exhibition features mainly photographs of men in heavy leather, S&M scenes and nude bodies, alongside neutral images such as a nude portrait of Smith and close-ups of flowers; the gallery had edited out the more explicit photographs, which were shown the following month at 80 Langton Street.

1980

Meets Milton Moore

At the gay bar Sneakers in the West Village Mapplethorpe meets Milton Moore, who is AWOL from the US Navy, and Moore becomes his muse; in November 1981 they move into a studio apartment at 88 Bleecker Street. Mapplethorpe supports Moore, pays his legal expenses and urges him to study photography at Parsons, but after a difficult visit to Moore’s family in rural Tennessee Moore moves out, leaving Mapplethorpe grief-stricken.

1980

Publishes “Black Males”

His interest in the Black male nude, inspired by the photographs of George Dureau, leads to the publication of “Black Males”; he will go on photographing Black male nudes, often his lovers, throughout the 1980s.

1982

A relationship with Jack Walls

An on-off relationship begins with Jack Walls, a clerk-typist from Chicago who becomes his muse; it is marred by arguments over money and drug use, and in 1984 Mapplethorpe evicts Walls from his Bleecker Street apartment after accusing him of stealing, but later reconciles with him and promotes his career, believing he could become the “new Ben Vereen”.

19 June 1982 – 28 September 1982

Exhibition: documenta 7