Gelatin silver print, 1978, signed, dated and numbered 4/10 in ink, titled, dated, numbered and with the artist's inkstamp on the reverse, with label from Cristin Tierney, NY and Robert Miller Gallery, NY.

13 7/8 x 13 3/4 in. (image), 19 3/4 x 15 3/4 in. (sheet), 30 x 29 1/2 in. (frame).

Note: Second only to self portraits, Robert Mapplethorpe's favorite subject was Patti Smith. The two met in New York City in 1967 and became lovers, living together in Brooklyn and then at the Chelsea Hotel on 23rd Street. Mapplethorpe began taking portraits of Smith as soon as he acquired his first camera, and would shoot several of her album covers, including most notably Horses in 1975. The image here is of Patti Smith after an accident in January 1977 at Curtis Hixen Hall in Tampa, FL where she was performing with Bob Seger & The Silver Bullet Band. Smith fell on stage while dancing and broke two vertebrae, forcing her to return to NYC on bed rest and to wear a neck brace. This image captures Smith in that moment, sitting erect in bed, slightly disheveled, holding the neck brace as if it were a scepter. Richard Cork wrote in his book New Spirit, New Sculpture, New Money: Art in the 1980s that "Patti Smith holds up her neck brace with the sobriety of a saint displaying the instrument that brought about her martyrdom." The following year, Smith left New York to live with Fred "Sonic" Smith in Detroit. Mapplethorpe and Smith remained very close until his death in 1989. This image is in the collection of the Chrysler Museum of Art, Norfolk, VA, The Whitney Museum of Art, NY, the Los Angeles County Museum of Art/J. Paul Getty Museum, and the Moderna Museet, Stockholm. It has been exhibited and published widely worldwide. A list of exhibitions and publications is available.

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