Baby's Breath

© Robert Mapplethorpe Foundation
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Baby's Breath

United States, 1978, printed 1978
Photographs
Gelatin silver print
Image: 13 7/8 × 13 7/8 in. (35.3 × 35.3 cm) Primary support: 19 13/16 × 15 15/16 in. (50.4 × 40.5 cm) Secondary support: 19 13/16 × 16 in. (50.4 × 40.7 cm) Mat: 24 × 20 in. (60.96 × 50.8 cm)
The Marjorie and Leonard Vernon Collection, gift of The Annenberg Foundation, acquired from Carol Vernon and Robert Turbin (M.2008.40.1378)
Photography
Not currently on public view

History

While this Robert Mapplethorpe photograph is part of the Marjorie and Leonard Vernon Collection it is only one of two works by the artist in the Vernon Collection....
While this Robert Mapplethorpe photograph is part of the Marjorie and Leonard Vernon Collection it is only one of two works by the artist in the Vernon Collection. Tim Wride former Curator of The Wallis Annenberg Photography Department at LACMA (now at the Norton Museum of Art Palm Beach Florida) said of the Vernons' ambivalence to collecting artwork like that of the controversial Mapplethorpe: "I understood why they didn't get Mapplethorpe. They were relatively conservative people. I mean the nudes by Weston would be okay and it fit their definition of art and beauty. I think that by the time Mapplethorpe came through they had a hard time divorcing it from the XYZ portfolio (controversy)."

Carol Vernon daughter of Leonard and Marjorie also commented on her parent's taste in collecting photography: "My parents very much wanted to live their life looking at beautiful things. They did not want Diane Arbus. There is no Joel Peter Witkin. Their Andy Warhol is a very easy Warhol. Their view of life was very positive and they didn't want to hold up imagery that was voyeuristic or open to ridicule. They wanted a pure view dignity in the image that was a guiding principle."
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Bibliography

  • Salvesen, Britt. See the Light: Photography, Perception, Cognition: the Marjorie and Leonard Vernon Collection. Los Angeles: Los Angeles County Museum of Art; New York: DelMonico Books/Prestel, 2013.