Provenance:Sotheby's, New York, n.d. (per sticker verso)Literature:Frances Terpak and Michelle Brunnick, Robert Mapplethorpe: The Archive, Getty Research Institute, Los Angeles, 2016 (about the Tantric Garden realization).Lot Essay:Patti Smith and Robert Mapplethorpe met in New York City in 1967, amid a period of profound cultural transformation. Initially lovers, they soon forged a lifelong bond as creative partners and soulmates—a connection that endured until Mapplethorpe’s death from AIDS in 1989. During their time living together at the legendary Chelsea Hotel, the pair collaborated on several projects, including the present work: a collage composed of cut-out shapes (including hearts, stars, and crosses) centering on two steady, seated nude portraits of Smith and Mapplethorpe. Conceived as part of a series of loose paper doll cut-outs, the piece was designed to be animated into a surreal motion picture—a kind of tantric Garden of Eden inhabited by the couple. For this project, Mapplethorpe enlisted fellow student Lloyd Ziff to photograph the pair in carefully choreographed nude poses, with and without blindfolds. Echoing the occult-infused aesthetic of Kenneth Anger—an influence Mapplethorpe deeply admired—this work, even in its static form, documents the couple’s shared artistic vision. It stands as a powerful artifact of their experimental spirit and of Mapplethorpe’s pursuit of a transcendent, cosmic love.