Robert Mapplethorpe

Patti Smith

About this artwork

Mapplethorpe rarely photographed anyone or anything in movement. Here the wind seems to have caught the cloth that Patti Smith has wrapped around herself. Otherwise the pose and composition are classically frontal and centralised. Mapplethorpe has used the row of headers in the brick wall and the narrow strip of ground to provide horizontal lines above and below the vertical figure of Smith to give stability to the composition.

Updated before 2020

see media
  • artist:
  • title:
    Patti Smith
  • date created:
    1976; printed 2005
  • materials:
    Gelatin silver print on paper
  • measurements:
    47.70 x 37.60 cm (framed: 74.50 x 62.10 x 3.80 cm)
  • object type:
  • credit line:
    ARTIST ROOMS National Galleries of Scotland and Tate. Acquired jointly through The d'Offay Donation with assistance from the National Heritage Memorial Fund and Art Fund, 2008
  • accession number:
    AR00187
  • gallery:
  • artwork photographed by:
    Antonia Reeve
This artwork is part of Artist Rooms
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Robert Mapplethorpe

Robert Mapplethorpe