Lady. Lisa Lyon by Robert Mapplethorpe
New York: The Viking Press, 1983. 1st Edition. Quarto, publisher's black cloth, spine stamped in silver, upper board blindstamped, black endpapers, original photo-illustrated dust jacket.
Mapplethorpe's "whirlwind tour of one lady's anatomy," an extended photo-essay composed of dozens of black-and-white plates, shot over the course of three years, of California bodybuilder and photographers' muse Lisa Lyon. "She and Robert met at a party in a SoHo loft. It was very dark, but he liked her quivering lip and glittering eyes. He liked the mop of loose black curls that give her the air of an Old Testament heroine. He liked her leather jacket and her tight black rubber pants...This book does not simply document Lisa Lyon: it is a work of the imagination – the visual counterpart of a novel, which, like all good novels, mixes fact and fantasy to reveal a greater truth" (from the introduction by novelist Bruce Chatwin). Lyon won the first Women's World Pro Bodybuilding Championship in 1979, and additionally modeled for Helmut Newton and Marcus Leatherdale. With a foreword by curator and collector Sam Wagstaff, Mapplethorpe's patron and lover. Spine-ends gently bumped; lightest edgewear to unclipped dust jacket. Near fine. Item #4184
$140.00