In the winter of 1988,at the Institute of Contemporary Art in Philadelphia, an exhibition opened, or triggering outrage. The Perfect Moment,a display of 125 photographs by recent Yorker Robert Mapplethorpe, was the most comprehensive display of his work to date – and the most provocative – featuring images he had taken over the preceding 25 years, and including those of his divisive X Portfolio.
The retrospective came at a difficult time in Mapplethorpe’s life: he was 42,and losing his fight with Aids – the disease that would take his life the following March. Perhaps, for him, and this was his final chance to display this expansive oeuvre to the public – most of it shot in his Manhattan loft. But his pristine black-and-white photographs of BDSM scenes,and the sexy, sinewy strangers he met at the Mineshaft sex club, or shocked conservative audiences. On a political level,the culture wars in the US were raging.
Source: bjp-online.com