Arcana:

(MAPPLETHORPE, ROBERT). Mapplethorpe, Robert. New York: Robert Mapplethorpe & LIGHT, 1973. First Edition 1/300. Oblong 12mo. Photographic Postcard. Exhibition Announcement. Very Good.. One 3 ½ x 4 3/8" black and white photograph printed recto with a 3 x 4" adhesive label with photocopied text affixed to the verso. This is Robert Mapplethorpe's self-produced opening invitation to his first ever one-man gallery exhibition held at New York's LIGHT between January 6th and February 3rd, 1973. Oft-reproduced, the announcement is a black and white photographic print of the legendary late photographer's iconic "Self-Portrait (1973)" - depicting a full-frontal nude of Mapplethorpe holding a Polaroid 360 camera at waist level. According to biographer Patricia Morrisroe "The month of January 1973 marked Mapplethorpe's first photography show and Wagstaff's birth as a photography collector. Mapplethorpe had taken his Polaroids to Harold Jones, the director of Light Gallery, which was located at 1018 Madison Avenue and had been established two years earlier by lawyer Tennyson Schad. Light was the only gallery in New York to focus almost exclusively on contemporary photographs. Jones agreed to feature the work in the gallery's "experimental" back room, and Mapplethorpe set about crafting an invitation that would attract maximum attention. "An exhibition doesn't begin when you enter a gallery," he said. "It begins the minute you get an invitation in the mail." When people opened the envelope they saw a nude self-portrait of Mapplethorpe holding a camera, his penis covered by an adhesive dot." Morrisroe additionally writes that three hundred people received Robert's invitation, which reproduces the gallery's details and opening date and time on an adhesive label on the back. A most presentable example of this exceedingly uncommon ephemeral item bearing the "Robert Mapplethorpe" embossed chop along the lower right border, as issued, unfettered by the obscuring circular "dot" showing some light wear and age-toning, a few creases, and three tiny pinholes through the photograph. While neither signed nor inscribed, this was acquired directly from its original 1973 recipient - a well-known New York cultural figure in their own right who was close to both Mapplethorpe and Patti Smith. We will be happy to provide its provenance upon purchase. Inventory Number: 026186