Robert Mapplethorpe and the Classical Tradition: Photographs and Mannerist prints

On 8 December 2004 a Mapplethorpe exhibition opened in halls 28 - 31 near the Winter Palace's Saltykov Entrance. Timed to coincide with the Hermitage Days, the show puts on display around 70 photographs by Robert Mapplethorpe from the Solomon R. Guggenheim Foundation and around 50 Mannerist prints from the collection of the State Hermitage dating back to the 16th century.

The exhibition has been organized by the State Hermitage together with the Solomon R. Guggenheim Foundation with sponsorship support from Deutsche Bank (Berlin) and Volkswagen. It presents the works of one of the most important American photographers of the late 20th century in an unusual context - alongside Dutch engravings from the 16th century.

The exhibition acquaints visitors with works by Jan Muller and Jan Saenredam made in the traditions of Hendrick Goltzius and Adrian de Vries, as well as works by Jacob Matham and Cornelis Cornelissen. The exhibition is complemented by three sculptures from the collection of the State Hermitage and the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum in New York.

Four centuries separate the prints by 16th century Dutch masters and the photographs of Robert Mapplethorpe (1946-1989), who was a cult figure of world art in the second half of the 20th century. By exhibiting them in juxtaposition, we establish a dialogue between classical and contemporary art, something which makes this exhibition unique not only for Russia, but also for most of the world's museums.

The exhibition is located in different rooms, each illustrating a separate theme: "analogies with Mannerism", "analogies with antiquity", "flowers", "the creation of the world", and, in the last room, a "hall of death", which displays a self-portrait of the artist taken not long before his death. The self-portraits which Mapplethorpe made at various times in his life evoke special interest. They show completely different people who are united by an unusual sensitivity and defenselessness in the face of the modern world with its sins and passions.

The similarity between 16th century prints and Robert Mapplethorpe's photographs is amazing. The artists of Northern Mannerism and one of the best photographers of the late 20th century have in common a special relationship to form. The world of Mannerism and the world of Mapplethorpe are fragile and delicate, like the presentation of the spirit Ariel which is summoned up by the magician Prospero in Shakespeare's play The Tempest.

The curators of the exhibition are Arkady Ippolitov, senior researcher in the Department of Western European Art at the State Hermitage and Germano Celant, curator at the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, with participation by Carol Weil, also from the Guggenheim Museum, New York.

The exhibition has been presented in the Deutsche Guggenheim, Berlin, and following the showing in the State Hermitage it moves to the Center of Photography in Moscow and then to the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, New York.

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Director of the State Hermitage Mikhail Piotrovsky at the opening

At the opening of the exhibition

At the exhibition

The photographs by Robert Mapplethorpe