Robert Mapplethorpe: Desire and Form at Palazzo Reale, Milan

Palazzo Reale in Milan presents a major retrospective of Robert Mapplethorpe (1946–1989), curated by Denis Curti. The exhibition opens with the artist's 1960s collages, made from clippings and archival images, revealing an early concern with identity performance and the artifice-reality dialectic. It then moves to portraits of Patti Smith and Lisa Lyon: Smith's images capture a rarefied intimacy, while Lyon's bodybuilding physique is rendered sculpturally, blurring gender boundaries. A central section juxtaposes nudes and floral still lifes, where an orchid on a dark background echoes human anatomy, linking flower and flesh. The final part confronts Mapplethorpe's photography with classical statuary, as his lens animates marble, making the canon vulnerable. The show has received international acclaim for its pioneering role in redefining the body and portraiture, inviting comparisons to Helmut Newton and Irving Penn. Palazzo Reale reaffirms its role as a space for reflecting on the image as a negotiation between essence, body, and emotional tension.