Orchid and Leaf in White Vase

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.

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

1983

Mapplethorpe and Warhol photograph each other

In 1983 Mapplethorpe and Andy Warhol photograph one another, and Warhol makes a silkscreen portrait of Mapplethorpe; in 1986 Mapplethorpe photographs Warhol again.