Mapplethorpe’s jewelry designs predate his photography but are often overlooked.
Mapplethorpe, who died of AIDS in 1989, may finally be getting his wish. Next month, at the behest of the foundation, Gaia Repossi, the creative director of the eponymous third-generation company, unveils 10 new high jewelry pieces inspired by Mapplethorpe’s originals from the early 1970s. “They were perfect,” says Repossi of the baubles Mapplethorpe used to make for friends and acquaintances, including Halston, Marisa Berenson, and Yves Saint Laurent .
While Mapplethorpe’s long chains and fetish necklaces were made from found objects such as skulls, rabbits’ feet, beads, feathers, and even the occasional shellfish, Repossi’s updates are rendered in exquisite golds and diamonds, and range in price from $2,050 for a ring to $197,000 for an Americana Eagle necklace. “It’s impossible to collaborate with someone who isn’t here,” Repossi explains, “so I was really careful not to violate his vision.
Her solicitousness has already won the admiration of influential fans. “She has really captured the essence and spirit of his designs,” says Frances Terpak, senior curator and head of photographs at the Getty Research Institute and a coauthor of, a book that pays special attention to the artist’s early Polaroids, sculpture, and jewelry. “There is a collector bias in favor of his black and white photographs, and the Repossi collaboration will go a long way to redressing that.
“Robert sought ultimate perfection and exquisite beauty, often in controversial subject matter that was far from the art world, with all its polished or seemingly sophisticated inhabitants,” Jacques says. “It was this bridging of opposing, often conflicting worlds that made him the iconic artist that he is and will be for many generations to come.”
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