Mapplethorpe died at the age of 42 due to complications from HIV/AIDS in a Boston hospital on March 9, 1989. In 1988, Mapplethorpe selected Patricia Morrisroe to write his biography, which was based on more than 300 interviews with celebrities, critics, lovers, and Mapplethorpe himself. He kept the Bond Street loft as his darkroom. In the 1980s, Wagstaff bought a top-floor loft at 35 West 23rd Street for Robert, where he resided, also using it as a photo-shoot studio. Mapplethorpe's first studio was at 24 Bond Street in Manhattan. "After dinner I go to the Mineshaft." )īy the 1980s, Mapplethorpe's subject matter focused on statuesque male and female nudes, delicate flower still lifes, and highly formal portraits of artists and celebrities. Mapplethorpe took many pictures of the Mineshaft and was at one point its official photographer (. From 1977 until 1980, Mapplethorpe was the lover of writer and Drummer editor Jack Fritscher, who introduced him to the Mineshaft (a members-only BDSM gay leather bar and sex club in Manhattan). During this time, he became friends with New Orleans artist George Dureau, whose work had such a profound impact on Mapplethorpe that he restaged many of Dureau's early photographs. In the mid-1970s, Wagstaff acquired a Hasselblad medium-format camera and Mapplethorpe began taking photographs of a wide circle of friends and acquaintances, including artists, composers, and socialites. In 1972, Mapplethorpe met art curator Sam Wagstaff, who would become his mentor, lover, patron, and lifetime companion. He also designed and sold his own jewelry, which was worn by Warhol superstar Joe Dallesandro. Mapplethorpe took his first photographs in the late 1960s or early 1970s using a Polaroid camera. Mapplethorpe's studio at 24 Bond Street in the NoHo neighborhood of Manhattan, later kept by him for use as a darkroom They created art together, and maintained a close friendship throughout Mapplethorpe's life. Mapplethorpe lived with his girlfriend Patti Smith from 1967 to 1972, and she supported him by working in bookstores. He studied for a Bachelor of Fine Arts from the Pratt Institute in Brooklyn, where he majored in Graphic Arts, though he dropped out in 1969 before finishing his degree. One of his brothers, Edward, later worked for him as an assistant and became a photographer as well. Mapplethorpe attended Martin Van Buren High School, graduating in 1963. He was of English, Irish, and German descent, and grew up as a Catholic in Our Lady of the Snows Parish.
Mapplethorpe was born in the Floral Park neighborhood of Queens, New York, the son of Joan Dorothy (Maxey) and Harry Irving Mapplethorpe, an electrical engineer. 4.2 University of Central England incident.4.1 The Perfect Moment (1989 solo exhibit tour).