Robert Mapplethorpe

Robert Mapplethorpe wanted to disrupt the idea of what a portrait is. And I’ve always wanted to disrupt the idea of what fashion is – what people consider as beautiful or not has always been fascinating to me.

— Edward Enninful

For this exhibition of works by American artist Robert Mapplethorpe (1946–1989) at Thaddaeus Ropac Paris Marais, the gallery invites Ghanaian-born British editor Edward Enninful OBE to collaborate with the Robert Mapplethorpe Foundation to present his singular vision of the photographer’s work. Enninful, Global Creative and Cultural Advisor of Vogue, was given carte blanche to explore the full archives of the Robert Mapplethorpe Foundation. In the exhibition, he presents his selection of 46 prints in pairs, forging new dialogues between them and inviting visitors to see even some of Mapplethorpe’s best-known photographs anew. With this unprecedented curatorial approach to the photographer’s work, as Michael Ward Stout, president of the Robert Mapplethorpe Foundation, says: ‘Edward has made a unique contribution to Mapplethorpe’s legacy’.