Robert Mapplethorpe
Mapplethorpe’s career as a photographer spanned the ’60s to the late ’80s, and though he may be best remembered for his homoerotic imagery, his oeuvre included portraits, still lifes and collages. His 1988, career retrospective exhibit The Perfect Moment became the focus of a controversy about censorship and federal government funding for the arts and helped make him a household name. Prior to his death on March 9, 1989, of AIDS-related illness, he established the Robert Mapplethorpe Foundation, which funds HIV/AIDS research.
