The Perfect Moment
Philadelphia: Institute of Contemporary Art, University of Pennsylvania, 1988. 1st Edition. Folio, publisher's photo-illustrated stiff paper wraps, maroon endpapers, original folding exhibition card and insert laid in.
Exhibition catalog for a retrospective of photos by New York artist Robert Mapplethorpe, presenting 25 years of nudes, celebrity portraits, flowers and collages. The traveling exhibition was Mapplethorpe's last, opening at Philadelphia's Institute of Contemporary Art just months before his death from AIDS complications in 1989. Due to its explicit imagery (specifically the X, Y, and Z Portfolios) the exhibition later became the center of a controversy over whether National Endowment for the Arts funds should be used to exhibit graphic sexual imagery and if an American museum could face prosecution for the art it displayed. Illustrated with color and black-and-white plates; essays by David Joselit and Kay Larson, dedication by Patti Smith; with exhibition checklist, history and select bibliography. Original folding exhibition card and insert laid in. Light rubbing and soiling to wraps. Very. Item #13191
$125.00