Mapplethorpe's gay S&M photos coming to LACMA

It has been two decades since artist Robert Mapplethorpe's exhibit of sexually graphic photographs showing black men engaged in sadomasochistic acts were denounced by Jesse Helms and put on trial for obscenity in Cincinnati. (The jury acquitted the museum director.) Now Mapplethorpe’s rarely shown "X Portfolio" will go on display this fall at the Los Angeles County Museum of Art, whose director, Michael Govan, tells ArtNews that “the context has changed...People understand that while there’s quite provocative content, the focus on the human body and the human form is quite classical.” From the story:

Beginning October 21, in a space beyond immediate sightlines where labels note the content may not be appropriate for everyone, the Los Angeles County Museum of Art will present each work in Mapplethorpe’s controversial series, including a picture of a finger inserted into a penis, and several scenes of objects being inserted into an anus. Two companion series will also be on view: The Y Portfolio (1978), featuring flower still lifes, and the Z Portfolio (1981), portraits of nude black males. Two days later, not far way, the Getty Museum will open its own tribute to the artist, a one-gallery show called “In Focus: Robert Mapplethorpe.” The museums are staging the exhibitions as a not-so-sneak peek at their spectacular joint acquisition, announced last year, of a trove of art and archives from the Mapplethorpe Foundation, including 2,000 photographs, 120,000 negatives, voluminous documentation of the obscenity trial, and much more....

Today’s audience, accustomed to contemporary museum fare like Paul McCarthy, not to mention cable and the Internet, won’t find Mapplethorpe’s sadomasochistic images particularly shocking, predicts LACMA director Michael Govan...

Now that no one’s expecting a bust, it’s clear that the show, staged in the midst of election season, will create a certain amount of buzz. But what kind?

Well, you never know until you try.

Photograph by Robert Mapplethorpe: "Jim, Sausalito (X Portfolio), 1977, gelatin silver print." The J. Paul Getty Museum