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Thomas
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Object number2012.12

Thomas

Artist (American, 1946 - 1989)
Date1986, printed 1988
Mediumgelatin silver print
Dimensionsimage: 19 × 19 in. (48.3 × 48.3 cm)
frame: 27 1/2 × 27 1/2 × 1 1/4 in. (69.9 × 69.9 × 3.2 cm)
Credit LineElisabeth Claire Lahti Fund
Exhibition History"A Legacy for Kalamazoo: Works Acquired through the Elisabeth Claire Lahti Fund, 1998 - 2012," KIA (Sept. 29, 2012 - Jan. 20, 2013). "Copley to Kentridge: What's New in the Collection?," KIA (Sept.14 - Dec. 1, 2013). "Lasting Legacy: A Collection for Kalamazoo," Kalamazoo Institute of Arts, Kalamazoo, Michigan (Sep. 6, 2014 - Jan. 4, 2015). "Framing Moments: Photography from KIA's Permanent Collection," KIA (Feb. 6 - May 16, 2021) "Unmasking Masculinity for the 21st Century: The Remix," KIA Galleries 2&5 (January 7 - March 12, 2023)Label TextThomas was one of three important black male models featured in Robert Mapplethorpe’s figure studies. Mapplethorpe’s work ranges from beautiful, uncontroversial compositions such as this to blatant homoerotic images that gained great notoriety and caused huge furor. He trained as a painter and sculptor, but came of age as an artist when photography was an exciting medium and just beginning to be accepted as a fine art. The male nude is among the oldest and most basic themes in all art. By focusing on the perfectly muscular human body, Mapplethorpe was equating its value as a subject for photography just as painters and sculptors had presented it for centuries. Aside from striking figure studies, Mapplethorpe was a gifted portraitist and photographer of still lifes. Great style, elegance, and an uncanny sensitivity to tonal contrasts, ranging from deep blacks to gradations of gray and brilliant whites are hallmarks of his work, which can be seen in Thomas. [Framing Moments Exhibition]