Whipping up a storm: how Robert Mapplethorpe shocked America
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10 things Robert Mapplethorpe:
Mapplethorpe, who died of Aids-related complications at the age of just 42, is currently the subject of a major exhibition at the Grand Palais in Paris, which aims to strip away the controversy and look at the photographer on his own terms. The retrospective, which is open until 24 July, is the largest ever mounted, with more than images spanning his entire career. Audiences in Paris will see his arresting flower photographs, for example, as well as his early and largely unknown experiments with sculpture. There are also many nudes, some explicitly homoerotic, others more stately and prescribed. He never worked in a documentary style, but always insisted on the formalism and the severity of the studio.