Mapplethorpe · Flowers (series)

Robert Mapplethorpe (1946-1989) ~ Untitled, from the series: Flowers, 1983 – 1984 (Orchids). Photogravure on handmade paper | src Städel Museum

Robert Mapplethorpe (1946-1989) ~ Untitled, from the series: Flowers, 1983 – 1984 (Gypsophila) | src Städel Museum

Robert Mapplethorpe (1946-1989) ~ Untitled, from the series: Flowers, 1983 – 1984 (Araceae) | src Städel Museum

Robert Mapplethorpe (1946-1989) ~ Untitled, from the series: Flowers, 1983 – 1984 (Tulips). Photogravure on handmade paper | src Städel Museum

Robert Mapplethorpe (1946-1989) ~ Untitled, from the series: Flowers, 1983 – 1984 (Lilies) | src Städel Museum

Robert Mapplethorpe (1946-1989) ~ Untitled, from the series: Flowers, 1983 – 1984 (Brodiaea) | src Städel Museum

Robert Mapplethorpe (1946-1989) ~ Untitled, from the series: Flowers, 1983 – 1984 | src Städel Museum

Robert Mapplethorpe (1946-1989) ~ Untitled, from the series: Flowers, 1983 – 1984 (Lily). Photogravure on handmade paper | src Städel Museum

**Robert Mapplethorpe** (1946-1989) ~ Flowers [Orchid], 1988

Robert Mapplethorpe (1946-1989) ~ Untitled, from the series: Flowers, 1983 – 1984 (Roses) | src Städel Museum

Robert Mapplethorpe (1946-1989) ~ Untitled, from the series: Flowers, 1983 – 1984 (Tulip) | src Städel Museum

Edle Nacktheit in China (1928)

**Heinz von Perckhammer ::** “Edle Nacktheit in China”, Macao, ca. 1920; photogravure on Japan paper | src Collezione Molinario

**Heinz von Perckhammer ::** The Culture of the Nude in China. Berlin; Eigenbrodler Verlag, [1928] | src heritage auctions

**Heinz von Perckhammer ~** From “Edle Nacktheit in China”. Eigenbrödler Verlag [Berlin, 1928] 1st edition (cover) | src sworders

**Heinz von Perckhammer ~** From “Edle Nacktheit in China /The culture of the Nude in China”. Eigenbrodler Verlag [Berlin, 1928]

**Heinz von Perckhammer ::** “The culture of the Nude in China”, Macao, ca. 1920; original photogravure on Japan paper | src Collezione Molinario

Heinz von Perckhammer was born in Merano, Austria-Hungary (now Italy) in 1895. During the First World War he served aboard the SMS Kaiserin Elisabeth during the Siege of Tsingtao and between 1917 and 1919 was held as a prisoner of war. It was during this time when he was held captive that his interest in photography began. He apparently remained in China for much of the 1920s, and took these soft-focused and stylized photographs of women from Macao brothels.

In the introduction to Edle Nacktheit in China he writes: ‘Pictures of nude women, setting aside the ugly caricatures of the “Spring pictures” of erotic scenes, simply do not exist in China. Therefore I believe, I have created something entirely new and of value.’ Edle Nacktheit in China was later banned by the Nazis as degenerate art (Entartete Kunst) and appeared on the Liste des schädlichen und unerwünschten Schrifttums [List of harmful and undesirable writing].