Robert Mapplethorpe (1946-1989)
Lisa Lyon, 1982
Gelatin silver print; flush-mounted, the photographer's copyright stamp, signed and dated in ink, on the reverse, framed; this work is one from an edition of 10 plus 2 Artist's Proofs.
19 1/8 x 15 1/4 in. (48.6 x 38.7 cm.)
sheet 19 3/4 x 15 7/8 in. (50.2 x 40.3 cm.)
Footnotes:
Provenance
The photographer to Lisa Lyon
Phillips New York, 4 April 2012, Lot 122
Acquired from the above by the present owner

Literature
Robert Mapplethorpe, Lady Lisa Lyon, (New York, 1983), p. 99

Note
Taken in Mapplethorpe's New York studio in 1982, Lisa Lyon - perhaps the photographer's most frequent and iconic muse - wears an animal-print dress by Norma Kamali, with hair and makeup by Rory Bernal.

'...Each session between L[yon] & M[applethorpe] seemed to shake loose from the last with an unpredictability common to women but less so to photography in series. Of course, Mapplethorpe always makes it more difficult for himself by deliberately framing everything and everybody in the same straitjacket style - the world reinvented as logic, precision, sculpture in obvious light and shadow.

I don't suppose he would ever have taken a second exposure of Lisa if her classicism and ideals of order had not been a match for his. 'The pictures are a little hard, like us,' [Lyon] says, adding, however, that in her Houdini act to escape the shackles of womanly stereotype, it is in the nonjudgemental precincts of these photos that she has been able to complete an emotional breakthrough that is impossible in life.' - Samuel Wagstaff, Lady Lisa Lyon, 1983

This gelatin silver print with thin margins, flush mounted to card, is in generally excellent condition. Upon close examination under raking light, the following are visible: scattered arcing scuffs in the upper right and left, and lower right portions of the image, none of which appear to break the emulsion; a single fingerprint immediately to the left of the sitter's head; a few small hairline scratches in the lower right portion of the image, one of which may break the emulsion; a pinpoint-sized impression at the lower left edge; a one-inch horizontal hairline scratch in the lower left portion of the image; and a very soft crease with some attendant rippling at the upper edge in the center. There are two, pinpoint-sized, white markings of indeterminate nature in the lower right corner of the image. There is minor margin edge wear and some attendant chipping, peeling, and a few tiny losses along each edge. The corners are gently worn and bumped.

'806' is written in an unidentified hand in ink on the reverse. Sold framed.