Robert Maplethorpe Ltd Edition Print

Black and white, and nothing to hide behind. Robert Mapplethorpe sculpted light the way other artists carve marble – a calla lily became an architecture, a portrait became a confession, and every frame was a study in grace and nerve. Our poster distills that gallery starkness into bold geometric blocks of black and white, the way a modernist poster would have said it: crisp sans-serif type, his name held like a title, his flower made monumental.

Born in Queens in 1946, Mapplethorpe arrived in Manhattan with a Polaroid and left it having turned photography into sculpture. Muse of Patti Smith, fixture of the back rooms and silver towers of 1970s New York, he made beauty out of forms the galleries had been told to look away from – and when his time ran short, he founded the foundation that still funds the fight against AIDS today. Line, light, and defiance: that is the whole of him, and it is all in this print.
Striking against white walls, charcoal paint, or a slab of marble console, it belongs in the gallery wall, the study, the room that is not afraid of a strong statement. Printed at 24 x 36 inches in gallery-quality color on heavyweight stock.
For the collector of photography, the friend who never once looked away, and everyone who believes – as he did – that beauty is worth arguing for.

Part of the LGBTQ+ Artist Collection: thirty-one Bauhaus tribute posters honoring the artists who made the world see differently.
Beauty is everywhere.

• Acid- and lignin-free and made to last.
• The natural finish enhances vibrancy and depth.
• Textured matte surface that enhances depth without losing clarity.
• Handmade wooden frame from Italy.