Mark Stevens (Mr 10½)
| Mark Stevens (Mr 10½) |
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| Robert Mapplethorpe , 1976 |
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Link to the picture |
Mark Stevens (Mr 10½) is a photograph by the American photographer Robert Mapplethorpe . It was created in 1976 in black and white.
The recording shows the American porn actor Marc Kutner (1943–1989) working under the pseudonym Marc Stevens , one of the key figures in the emerging porn industry in New York at the beginning of the 1970s, who was also known as Mr 10½ because of his penis size . Stevens, wearing only black leather chaps , leans diagonally to the right over a linen-covered box. In the center of the picture are his half erect penis and testicles. Above the shoulders and below the knees the picture is cropped so that the representation of the male body is limited to the genital area.
The recording was made at a time when large numbers of homosexuals in the USA were stepping out of secrecy into the public, on the one hand to change public awareness and on the other hand to develop their own culture.
The recording was made in 2011 in the exhibition Robert Mapplethorpe. Retrospective shown at C / O Berlin .
reception
In an article in the New York Times in the summer of 1989, the American politician Jesse Helms linked homosexuality and AIDS after Mapplethorpe's death and condescendingly commented on his work: “There is a big difference between the merchant from Venice and a photo of two different men Race in an erotic pose on a marble-topped table. ”However, he confused two photos of male couples, including Ken and Tyler from 1985, none of which are posing on a marble-topped table, with the photo of Mark Stevens (Mr 10½) , who however also shows no table with a marble top. In a report published in Museum & Arts magazine in November 1989 , Helms discussed works of art in his home, where he had ten or twelve works of art, and stated, "But we don't have a penis spread out on a table." Helms photocopied the work and distributed the copies among US Senators to raise awareness against the promotion of art with public funds.
The Northern Irish poet Michael Longley suggested the photo for the poem "Mr 10½ after Robert Mapplethorpe " published in The Ghost Orchid 1995 , in which it says
"When he lays out on a market stall or altar
His penis and testicles in thanksgiving and for sale,
I find myself considering his first months in the womb
As a wee girl [...]"
literature
- Arthur Coleman Danto: Robert Mapplethorpe In: Encounters & Reflections: Art in the Historical Present , pp. 212–217 ( digitized version )
Individual evidence
- ↑ Marc Stevens in the English version of the IMDb
- ^ Arthur Coleman Danto: Robert Mapplethorpe In: Encounters & Reflections: Art in the Historical Present , p. 215
- ^ "Robert Mapplethorpe. Retrospective ”at C / O Berlin In: tip
- ^ Richard Meyer: Mapplethorpe's Livin Room: Photography and the furnishing of desire In: Michael Camille, Adrian Rifkin: Other objects of desire: collectors and collecting queerly , pp. 130-133
- ↑ Denis Flannery: 'Queer' Photography and the 'Culture Wars' In: David Holloway, John Beck: American visual cultures , p. 271
- ^ To stop the bleeding: The poetry of botany in Michael Longley . Translation: "When he puts his penis and testicles on a market stall or an altar for thanksgiving and for sale, then I think of his first months in the womb as a little girl [...]."