Provocative, elegant, visionary: Robert Mapplethorpe returns to the spotlight with three exhibitions and a catalog that retraces his entire artistic journey. At the core of his work lies the pursuit of an absolute aesthetic, capable of uniting rigor and sensuality, scandal and formal perfection. A new publication dedicated to him, edited by Denis Curti and published by Marsilio Arte, accompanies the exhibitions in Venice, Milan and Rome. The volume features 257 works: from early collages to floral still lifes, from portraits to nudes sculpted in light. What emerges above all is the Books dialogue with classicism: ancient statues and contemporary bodies confront each other in a game of references, where the harmony of sculpture merges with the eroticism of the living body, suspended in a balance between the ideal and the carnal. Essays by Michael Ward Stout, Alberto Salvatori and Denis Curti offer different yet complementary interpretations: from the rigor of form to emotional intensity, culminating in a trajectory marked by a vulnerable and ambiguous sensitivity. The catalog also includes a detailed critical section (biography, bibliography, list of solo exhibitions).
