Wagstaff: Before and After Mapplethorpe: A Biography

Description

A legendary curator, collector, and patron of the arts, Sam Wagstaff was a "figure who stood at the intersection of gay life and the art world and brought glamour and daring to both" (Andrew Solomon). Now, in Philip Gefter's groundbreaking biography, he emerges as a cultural visionary. Gefter documents the influence of the man who―although known today primarily as the mentor and lover of Robert Mapplethorpe―"almost invented the idea of photography as art" (Edmund White). Wagstaff: Before and After Mapplethorpe braids together Wagstaff's personal transformation from closeted society bachelor to a rebellious curator with a broader portrait of the tumultuous social, cultural, and sexual upheavals of the 1960s, '70s, and '80s, creating a definitive portrait of a man and his era. 32 pages of photographs

Description

Sam Wagstaff, the legendary curator, collector, and patron of the arts, emerges as a cultural visionary in this groundbreaking biography in which Wagstaff's largely overlooked influence on the world of contemporary art and photography, and on the evolution of gay identity in the latter part of the twentieth century, is portrayed.

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