Lily with Bud

Mapplethorpe?s Lily With Bud is an elegant black-and-white image of a freshly opened lily positioned beside a mature bud on a single stem. Brilliantly and evenly lit, the image retains a sense of classical chiaroscuro while also maintaining an evenly saturated satin effect on the surface of the flowers, leaves and stem. This type of classically aesthetic and beautifully stylized still life was prevalent in Mapplethorpe?s oeuvre throughout the 1980s.