Robert Mapplethorpe | The Forms of the Classical

From April 10, 2025, to January 6, 2026, Le Stanze della Fotografia in Venice, on the island of San Giorgio Maggiore, will host a major exhibition dedicated to Robert Mapplethorpe, one of the most iconic, refined, and controversial photographers of the twentieth century. Curated by Denis Curti, artistic director of Le Stanze, and produced by Marsilio Arte and Fondazione Giorgio Cini in collaboration with the Robert Mapplethorpe Foundation of New York, this retrospective represents the first chapter of an exhibition trilogy that will continue in 2026 with events in Milan and Rome.

A journey into classical beauty through photography

The exhibition “Robert Mapplethorpe. The Forms of the Classical” brings together over 200 works, some of which have never been exhibited in Italy before. The exhibition itinerary opens with collages and ready-mades from the 1960s and continues with portraits of Patti Smith, Lisa Lyon, and international celebrities such as Andy Warhol, Truman Capote, Susan Sontag, Glenn Close, Yoko Ono, and Richard Gere.

The exhibition delves into the dialogue between contemporary photography and classicism, connecting the plasticity of the bodies portrayed by Mapplethorpe with ancient statuary. The male and female nudes, iconic portraits, and celebrated images of flowers like calla lilies, tulips, and orchids transform into timeless photographic sculptures, molded by light and perfect composition.

An unprecedented and poetic homage to a master of the lens

As Denis Curti emphasizes, the Venetian exhibition highlights how Mapplethorpe reinterprets classical aesthetics to explore themes such as desire, identity, gender, and sensuality, with a refined and visionary language. The images, meticulously curated, become bridges between past and present, between formal rigor and emotional power.

The exhibition also includes vintage objects and archival documents from the Mapplethorpe Foundation: personal letters, records, posters, rare editions, and two short films directed by the artist himself.