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Netflix Pick: Black White + Gray

 
Given my love of the Patti Smith/Robert Mapplethorpe love story/friendship, I was keen to check this one out.  This documentary focuses more on the relationship/patronship of Sam Wagstaff to controversial artist/photographer Mapplethorpe. 
 
As a teenager in the 90's, I was very interested in Mapplethorpe's work.  Of course, at the time, it was very hard to actually see any of his work.  He had already died by that time, but he was still largely considered a pornographic pervert of the 1980's.  I remember writing a paper on censorship in high school and including the few bits and pieces of him that I could find. 
 
Then as an adult, I learned about Robert Mapplethorpe through the eyes of Patti Smith, his young love and lifetime friend. 
 
She speaks throughout this documentary and gives voice to how the friendship between the two of them made way for the three of them as Wagstaff came into the picture. 
 
Others are not so kind.  They call Wagstaff simply a "sugar daddy" to Mapplethorpe.  They accuse Robert of leading Sam to the path of iniquity that would eventually cause his death.  They called Mapplethorpe a manipulator who only loved himself.
 
With a much greater sensitivity toward homosexuality and a much wiser view of the early AIDS deaths, it's hard not to look back on that time and see it as slightly archaic.  Manic.  Chaotic.
 
It also makes me wonder who my generation will hold up as the great artists of its time in years to come.  Shepard Fairey?  Beck?  Ice Cube?
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