M HKA Ensembles

Photography, 70 x 68 cm.

Collection: Verzameling Anne en Dorian van der Brempt.

If you take a closer look at the photos Robert Mapplethorpe took of The Power of Theatrical Madness, you will notice an entirely different theatrical language, a different generation, a different time. The photographs are extremely sharp with high contrasts. The photographer shoots the actors (individuals, not groups) in a candid and straight-forward manner. There is no degree of tepid mystification: the portraits offer themselves to the reader, they look you straight in the eyes, the photograph examines the body without mercy: the reaction of a hand hitting a jaw, the sweat dripping from a body, a scepter in a hand, a hand, the difference between firm, round or sagging buttocks. The photograph remains at the surface. But it is precisely this surface which is so rich and full of expressive and subtle details. Despite the harshness of the white meat on a black background, there is also a lot of tenderness and irony hiding behind the mouths, gestures and movements.

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