John and I spoke with Michael Stout, the president of the Robert Mapplethorpe Foundation and Eric Johnson at the opening of the Robert Mapplethorpe Retrospective at the NRW-Forum last night.
Michael kindly, with a big smiling face, gave us a personal view of the photographer; they had known one another many years, he was his friend, his lawyer and the person he asked to help build and take care of the Robert Mapplethorpe Foundation.
I also spoke with Ralph Goertz, who has recently returned from the States where he was able to speak with, and film, people who had been friends with Mapplethorpe and who had worked with him. I asked Ralph if these people were tired of having to answer questions on Mapplethorpe and was very surprised to hear that several of the people in his movie "Shapes" had never spoken about Mapplethorpe before! A enormous coup for Ralf - congratulations - and a wonderful film is the result! You can see it at the exhibition and purchase it in the shop at the NRW-Forum.
The tour will evolve greatly I'm sure as we move through the weeks of the exhibition.
We encourage questions and discussions and are able to contact the Robert Mapplethorpe Foundation with unanswered questions which will no doubt come up.
Certainly the response to the packed opening last night was very positive. The photographs are everything - stunningly beautiful, intriguing and quite unlike anything you may have seen before.
Marja from Finnland and Mercedes from Spain who won an invitation to the opening at our Funk & Soul Party in November.
Stammtisch every Friday from February 12th.
Free tour in English 9pm.
