Untitled #4

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.

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.

1987

The death of Sam Wagstaff

Wagstaff, who had remained a good friend after the romance ended and had earlier given Mapplethorpe $500,000 to buy a loft at 35 West 23rd Street, dies of AIDS; Mapplethorpe is the principal heir and executor, and after a year of legal disputes Wagstaff’s sister, Judith Jefferson, drops her lawsuit, leaving him a substantial inheritance.