This three-part series of images, or “triptych, ” depicts a drama in three acts: a vase suspended by unseen forces above an indefinite surface gains a bouquet of dark, fluffy carnations that, in the final frame, appear to be growing only larger atop the screw-like vase. The surreal qualities of this series render the otherwise innocuous flowers as something vaguely sinister, possessed of darker powers that enable their growth even after being cut. Beauty and death are therefore conjoined to powerful effect in Mapplethorpe’s series, rendering these otherwise ordinary objects as things of existential exploration.
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 giugno 1982 – 28 settembre 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.
1984
Alexandra Knaust becomes his agent in London
Mapplethorpe appoints Alexandra Knaust, whom he had met in the early 1980s while she worked for the photographer Gilles Larrain, as his agent in London, where she works to promote his career; she will become an important figure in his later life.
1986
“Black Males” and “The Black Book”: an exhibition and a controversy
The solo exhibition “Black Males” and the accompanying book “The Black Book” (St. Martin’s Press) stir controversy over their erotic depictions of Black men, which critics call exploitative; Mapplethorpe states that he had been sexually involved with “at least 75 percent” of the men featured.
September 1986
Pneumonia and an AIDS diagnosis
Gravely ill with pneumonia, Mapplethorpe agrees at the urging of his friend Dimitri Levas to enter Beth Israel Hospital — a bronchoscopy confirms AIDS-related Pneumocystis pneumonia; his brother Edward, the only family member who knows of the diagnosis, returns to help, and Jack Walls, back from Los Angeles, moves in with him again.
