Gladstone Gallery presents an exhibition of historic works by Robert Mapplethorpe, curated by artist, Roe Ethridge. This marks the gallery's first solo presentation as the New York representative of the Robert Mapplethorpe Foundation. Barbara Gladstone showed his work once before when she published the seminal Flowers portfolio in the early 1980s. Ethridge brings his own perspective as a contemporary artist who works in the same genres of portraiture and still life that are touchstones of Mapplethorpe's well-known oeuvre. Drawn from the extensive archive of the Robert Mapplethorpe Foundation, Ethridge has selected both iconic images-including self-portraits, flowers, and scenes of frank sexual provocation-and those exhibited for the first time to evoke his own experience of understanding the breadth of Mapplethorpe's mastery of process and composition. This show offers a compelling new look at Mapplethorpe's distinctive practice: rather than focusing on a specific time or subject, it explores less familiar images and themes that highlight the innovation of his work, still astonishing almost three decades after his death. Robert Mapplethorpe Curated by Roe Ethridge will be on view until April 14, 2018 at Gladstone Gallery in New York. photographs by Adam Lehrer
