Mapplethorpe, Prince of Darkness
THE NATION
By Tim Murphy
There’s a darkly funny and truly unsettling moment about halfway through "Mapplethorpe: Look at the Pictures," the terrific new HBO documentary, which premiered on April 4, about Robert Mapplethorpe, the openly gay Queens-born photographer who shocked the world with his graphic gay S&M pictures before he died of AIDS in 1989. His former lover and confessor Jack Fritscher leans into the camera and says, “I have to say that, because nobody will say it.” He pauses nervously, then continues, “but…Satan, to him, was not this evil monster. Satan was like a convivial playmate” [link]
By Tim Murphy
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| An art critic takes a close look at one of Robert Mapplethorpe’s photographs. (Reuters) |
