Tulips

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 juni 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.

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.