Furthermore, the artists undermined conventional attitudes of the community that were present at that time (, 2018).Īs to the description of the composition of self-portrait, Mapplethorpe uses several types of acrogenous elements including make-up. This instrument allows his to shift focus from persona similarly to chameleon without fear of loss of the control, where the artists took on different identities. This work shows the new dimension in the personal development of the artist where he focuses on the differentiation of the gender roles.
FAMOUS SELF PORTRAITS FREE
By showing himself in female’s makeup, in girlish manner with certain level of flatness of the body, the artists wanted people to free their mind from perceptions and social limitations. Mapplethorpe explained his attitude to the preparation of self-portraits in a manner that he wished to transform consciousness of the people. In addition, he pursued an intention to show that he was able to take on different shades and identities (, 2013). Through this photo, Mapplethorpe intended to challenge the essence of the concepts of «male» and «female». Moreover, the artist was concerned with exploration of his personal identity. Given the fact that self-portraits of the artist is the reflection of his mood, state of development and outcomes of the investigation, a photograph made in 1980 is the result of the examination of the concept of gender. Besides, Mapplethorpe was fond of appreciation of duality in this work and controversy of the issues (Tate, 2018).įollowing this discussion, one may agree that Robert Mapplethorpe plays with complicated figures of self and cultural notions. In fact, there are different alter egos that are shown and presented from year to year in different works. With that, this work reveals special alter ego of the artist. This way os doing photos brought success to the artist, when others did not even try to follow this way. Based on this photograph and several other pieces, it is possible to race the fact that Mapplethorpe shows his boy fantasies, while provocative way of production of photos is appreciated by public. The work Self Portrait made in 1980 is also featured with perpetual chilling effect which is used to feature essence of the erotic objects in the figure. With this work, the artist places the question to the audience: whether are the notions of “male” and “female” too close or too different? (Guggenheim, 2018). There are numerous traditional signs for a male and female that are included in the portrait. Therefore, the audience observes representation of archetype through juxtaposing. The artist decides to blur his gender identity by putting dramatical make up. In support of the discussion above, it is highly important to look at the origins of the self-portrait creation in 1980. His work is a reflection of the culture prevailing in 1980s, where the actions of the young people were quite outrageous and misguiding for people (Tate, 2018). Hence, he just attempted to show to the people and beauty and the Devil are united. In this work, Mapplethorpe did not know about his diagnosis with HIV. Robert prefers to pose totally frontal so to show all his features of the face. The work Self Portrait 1980 represents Robert as bad boy, while one should also look at the style of the creation of this work. However, only 1980 attracts more attention from people than other objects. Robert takes on different roles with making his self-portraits. Besides, self-portrait of 1980 is different from his portrait made in 1988 with the fact that the later represents autobiography and responds to the question about actual side of the existence of the author on the Earth (Tate, 2018). Moreover, making self-portrait allowed to the author to interfere in the exploration of the photography. In particular, with use of the polaroid, the artist refers to the application and first experiments. Looking at self-portrait of Robert Mapplethorpe, one may agree that it has mentioned elements. In general, self-portrait goes in parallel with identity of the artist, his internal desire to conduct different experiments with numerous techniques. For sure, self-portrait is defined as one of the most complicated genres for artists due to the fact that it allows to other people to look at the private life of the author. The creation of the self-portrait is linked to the intention of the author to develop identity and individuality. "Robert Mapplethorpe And His “Self-Portrait” (1980)"
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