I am stuck outside a small town about two hours drive down the coast from Oslo (Norway). It’s been raining continuously for almost three days. Nothing much to do.
I read books, magazines and old (2011) clips from my archive of newspaper and magazine clippings, mostly about business – and art. Photography, video and new media art in particular. Mainly from the Financial Times (FT) but also some from Die Zeit, the German weekly – great papers for business and art lovers.
Self portraits. Source: www.mapplethorpe.org
I have convinced myself that I should visit the spa hotel in the nearby town. I have never been to a spa before, but I have heard that they have a very positive effect on your body – and mind. Some say yoga is far better, that it has a more profound and long term effect. Maybe that’s true. But this small town has a spa, I know exactly where it is, and it’s only a 10 minute drive. It’s too complicated to find out if there’s any yoga around. Time for SPA – Salus Per Aquam (health through water).
I decide to start with 45 minutes in the gym, building my body. I usually do that twice a week. I open the door to the hallway leading to the gym. I stop dead. In front of me hang five large black and white photographs of naked people – some men and some women. I have been to many gyms in different parts of the world, but never to a gym filled up with excellent, highly stylized photographs of naked erotic bodies. Are they Robert Mapplethorpe? THE Robert Mapplethorpe – on the walls of a small town spa in Norway? Too good to be true. But you never know.
The spa offers a variety of services: Finnish sauna, soft sauna, herb sauna, steam sauna, event shower (a shower that simulates different types of rain, tropical, etc.), warm and cold pools. They call it a mineral spa. A mix of different temperatures, smells and humidity – and water, lots of water.
After the gym and a quick shower I am ready. I enter the real spa, but stop in my tracks. Wow! Sexually charged photographs of black and white men – and white women - on every wall. There are 10-15 of them, maybe more. I get the feeling of a deliberate curatorial strategy. Homoerotic and classical nudes in a spa, a perfect match. But is it Mapplethorpe – THE Robert Mapplethorpe? Or is it copies by unknown photographers?
Robert Michael Mapplethorpe was born on 4 November, 1946. Raised in Floral Park, Long Island, USA, as the third of six children, he was a mischievous little boy whose carefree youth was delicately tinged with a fascination for beauty.
Robert Mapplethorpe died on the morning of March 9, 1989 – 42 years old – from complications arising from AIDS. In September 1999, the book Pictures by Mapplethorpe was confiscated in the belief that the book breached indecency and obscenity laws. In 2006 a Mapplethorpe print of Andy Warhol was auctioned for $ 643,200, making it the 9th most expensive photograph ever sold.
At 13.00 it’s time for 30 minutes of massage, 30 minutes simply because I cannot afford more. I have given instructions for them to focus on my back. I enter the spa (intensive) treatment area and am guided to a small room where the massage will be performed by a lady. She greets me kindly and says, “Please lie down on the couch, with your head down. Is everything OK? Yeah, great.” And she adds, “I’ll say nothing while I do the massage”. I couldn’t care less. I am in a small pleasant massage room with five excellent photographs on the wall. The only problem is that I have to lie on my stomach. Unfortunately I have ordered a back massage. I should have known better. But it simply couldn’t be true - a spa in a small town filled up with Mapplethorpe’s provocative and powerful works.
Robert Mapplethorpe was a master of photography. He started out doing Polaroid photographs in the early 70s. Later on with his Hasselblad, he concentrated on photographing his friends – artists, musicians, socialites and porn stars. In the late 80s he grew unusually interested in documenting the New York S&M scene. The photographs are shocking for their content and remarkable for their technical and formal mastery.
This spa has a special concept: VRP – Very Relaxed Person (area). It’s almost 4 o’clock in the afternoon, and I decide that the best part of my spa journey must include the VRP. I definitively need to get relaxed. I open the VRP door. Even more Mapplethorpes? I notice that the surface of the prints offer a seemingly endless gradation of black and white, light and shadow, and regardless of subject, the images are both elegant and provocative. If they aren’t Mapplethorpes, they sure are excellent works, done by professionals.
Before leaving the spa I flipped through a couple of coffee table design books dedicated to the best of the best in spa designs. Great designs, great pictures, sexy ladies – but I noticed that none of them showed any Mapplethorpes. In fact I could not find a piece of art in any of them. Not even a nice Monet. It seems it’s only in a small town in Norway you can look at incredible photographs while at the same time getting your body and soul as clean as is possible. I can assure you that photography plays an important role in this spa. So photography matters – even in the spa – thanks to those business people who made it happen. Role models? Yes indeed.
I walked out of the spa and headed for the bar. A cold beer would be just fine after the spa dehydration. Of course you don’t hang photographs of nude males and females in the bar area. So what do you hang there? Portraits, of course, portraits of great people. I imagine that such portraits will give barmaids (and men) a more constructive working environment.
Source: www.mapplethorpe.org
I walked into the bar side room and there she was: Patti Smith, the queen of the New York underground rock and roll scene for the last 30-40 years. Mapplethorpe’s 1975 portrait of Patti Smith is astonishing. It captures the heart and soul of the times in a remarkable way. And even more so in this bar, because it is hung to the right of the Robert Mapplethorpe’s Self portrait with a cane – with a portrait of Louise Bourgeois on his left side. Two women who in different ways had a profound influence on Mapplethorpe’s development as an artist and person.
Patti Smith’s 2010 memoirs Just kids (1) focuses on her deep relationship with Mapplethorpe. They were two of a kind – soul mates.
The portraits told me that angst and pain sometimes contribute more to creativity and energy than relaxation and wellness. It’s obvious that neither Mapplethorpe, Bourgeois or Smith are members of today’s wellness community.
I was pleased that the beer was cold. Portraits of such people are not common in hotel bars.
Mapplethorpe once said “I don’t like the word ‘shocking’. I am looking for things I’ve never seen before …I was in a position to take those pictures. I felt an obligation to do them”.
Much has been said about Robert Mapplethorpe, and more will be added. He has been and will be condemned and adored. A true artist.
But was it really Mapplethorpe in the spa? Of course not. They are all excellent copies by unknown photographers. In the world of photography it is easy to be fooled. In the digital world people make great “copies”. There is so much high calibre talent out there. And the technology is so sophisticated.
Was it really Mapplethorpe photographs hanging there in the bar? Yes, it was. Fooled in the spa? Yes and no! But it doesn’t matter. It was a great journey for the body and the soul. What is an “original” and what is a “copy”?
Needless to say, I went back the next day for more time in the spa. I was looking for things I’ve never seen, rather than pursuing a youthful appearance and a longer and healthier life.
Jens R Jenssen
Leader
Statoil art programme
Reference:
(1) Patti Smith. Just Kids. Harper Collins publishers, 2010