Patti Smith and Robert Mapplethorpe (Kunst)

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Today’s Wild Love celebrates a friendship that left a permanent impact on music, art, photography and style in America: Patti Smith and Robert Mapplethorpe. Immortalized in Smith’s book, Just Kids, their friendship was a merging of aesthetics that influenced Smith to forever change the face of poetry and rock and roll. In turn, Smith was Mapplethorpe’s muse until his untimely and far-too-early death in 1989.

Smith and Mapplethorpe lived together from 1967 to 1974, spending much of that time at the Chelsea Hotel, a mecca for artists, musicians, writers and other creative icons of their time. Their works explored themes of Catholicism, sexuality and gender, self-mythology and the relationship between light and dark. But while their lifestyle was rooted in New York’s punk rock scene in the 1970s, their letters to and affection for each other were anything but brutal. They signed letters to each other with a blue star, a symbol of their undying love for each other. Even after Mapplethorpe realized he was gay, they remained in love, able to support each other as muses, soul mates and best friends.

They worshipped the poetry of Jean Genet and Arthur Rimbaud, as well as the writing of Bob Dylan. They filled their apartment with images from their respective Catholic upbringings, with Mapplethorpe often manipulating images of saints and crucifixes and Smith exploring the cosmic and ethereal. They ran around with Jimi Hendrix, Sam Shepard, Grace Slick, Janis Joplin and Warhol, among many others. Smith would go on to become a legend in music, releasing iconic album after iconic album, and incorporating poetry and theater into the world of punk rock. Mapplethorpe would later become famous for his shocking photos depicting homoerotic and BDSM imagery, shot in poignant and beautiful light, the same light used in his portraits of calla lilies and orchids.

Smith and Mapplethorpe’s relationship was also explored in the 2007 documentary Black White + Gray, which primarily focused on Mapplethorpe’s lifelong relationship with his patron and partner, Sam Wagstaff, but includes the following clip of Smith reminiscing about Mapplethorpe:

I used Patti Smith and Robert Mapplethorpe’s style as inspiration for this arrangement, primarily comprised of peonies, roses, calla lilies, scabiosa, chocolate lace and one nigella acting as the “blue star.” The arrangement has a darkness and intensity, while also showing a sweeter, lighter side. Calla lilies and hosta are used as symbols of Mapplethorpe’s work, referencing his portraits of flowers popular during the 1980s. Red peonies are symbolic of the lifelong passion and intensity between Smith and Mapplethorpe, and pale pink garden roses represent their tender and almost childlike love for each other. Crystals and sage, as well as the icon of the Madonna, reference both artists’ fascination with Catholic imagery and bohemian spirituality.

http://www.designsponge.com/2012/06/wild-love-patti-smith-robert-mapplethorpe.html