Tag Archive "robert-mapplethorpe"

Culture War Memorial: Imperfect Moments: "Mapplethorpe and Censorship 20 Years Later" at Penn

Robert Mapplethorpe Self-Portrait © Estate of Robert Mapplethorpe.In the late 80s and 90s the political far right had the most sophisticated appreciation of the power of art in the U.S. and harnessed it to build what would come to be known as the Moral Majority. The power they employed was fueled by fear; fear of difference, of the unknown, of people who were not like them. The far right understood the power of art to embody and personify those differences. They fired the initial shots of what would come to be known as the Culture Wars and twenty years later ... More » »

Women’s Work

Lee Miller Self-Portrait in Headband, New York (1932), Lee Miller Archives © Lee Miller Archives, England 2008. All rights reserved. The last time Miller posed as a fashion model for Vogue she was the photographer as well. The credit ran photographer: Lee Miller, model: MISS LEE MILLER (COIFFURE BY DIMITRI) There’s a confluence of exhibitions in or coming to Philadelphia that raise overlapping questions about women’s agency, their representation and self-presentation. They’ve also got me thinking about the extent to which one should consider biography in assessing artwork, something I’m not inclined to do. The Art of Lee Miller opened ... More » »