In the years leading up to his death, Robert Mapplethorpe turned his lens to flowers and classical sculpture. For Flower with Knife, Mapplethorpe removed the flower from its natural element and photographed it in a controlled studio setting. The compositional clarity and dramatic lighting of the interior makes for an image that feels both scientific and highly atmospheric, with allusions to the sexuality and violence present in his figurative work. Mapplethorpe was an active participant and documentarian of the S&M scenes in San Francisco and New York frequently photographing bondage, whips, and leather in his graphic sexual images. Here, the organic forms of the flower's petals starkly contrast the gleaming verticality of the knife pointing upwards.

Another impression of this image is held in the permanent collection of the J. Paul Getty Museum, Los Angeles.

Robert Mapplethorpe (1946–1989) was an American photographer known for his large-scale, highly stylized black-and-white portraits, photographs of flowers and images of nude men. The frank, homosexual eroticism of some of the work of his middle period triggered a general controversy concerning the public funding of artworks. Born and raised in New York, Mapplethorpe studied graphic arts at the Pratt Institute in Brooklyn, NY where he earned his BFA in 1970 while also working as a photographer for Andy Warhol’s Interview Magazine. In his own work, Mapplethorpe began with intimate self-portraits and portraits of his friends including artists such as Patti Smith and members of the S&M scene in New York. Focusing on beauty, sex, and intimacy, Mapplethorpe created sensual portraits and floral still lives at the heart of his oeuvre in the 1980s. Diagnosed with AIDS in 1986, Mapplethorpe established the Robert Mapplethorpe Foundation to support and promote photography and fight again AIDS and HIV in 1988, the same year in which his first major retrospective was presented at the Whitney Museum of American Art, New York. Mapplethorpe passed away in 1989 from AIDS-related complications.

Please be advised that due to recent global concerns, there may be fulfillment delays during the post-sale process.