Polaroids: Mapplethorpe at the Block Museum

Untitled (Nancy Nortia), 1973/75

Writings, studies, or early musings of huge art world figures can be insightful and deeply refreshing. In this collection of over 90 Polaroids taken by Robert Mapplethorpe, we see what he saw early on in his career - the instant image. Many of these shots capture intimate figures in an intimate space (the bedroom or with a single furniture object), and a trek to Evanston's Block Museum for the full show is on our winter list:

Untitled (self-portrait), 1970/73

Untitled (Patti Smith), 1973

Untitled (Jay Johnson, London), 1973

Untitled (Randy), 1973/75

Untitled, 1973

From the Block Museum:

Taken between 1970 and 1975 before Mapplethorpe had developed his mature style, the more than 90 Polaroid pictures in this exhibition anticipate the themes and subjects of Mapplethorpe's later work — portraiture, sexuality, the classical beauty of the human body — with a spontaneity and immediacy that is inherent to instant photography.

The show runs through April 5, 2009. The Block Museum is located here.