Photograph, gelatin silver print on paper
Tate Collection
Works with images
General Collection
ARTIST ROOMS
National Heritage Memorial Fund
Art Fund
Collection
<a href="https://www.tate.org.uk/art/artists/robert-mapplethorpe-11413" aria-label="More by Robert Mapplethorpe" data-gtm-name="header_link_artist" data-gtm-destination="page--artist">Robert Mapplethorpe</a>
Arnold Schwarzenegger
ARTIST ROOMS
Acquired jointly with the National Galleries of Scotland through The d'Offay Donation with assistance from the National Heritage Memorial Fund and the Art Fund 2008
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<p>In this full-length black and white portrait photograph, the Austrian bodybuilder Arnold Schwarzenegger is shown semi-nude, performing a body-building pose in the artist’s studio. He is positioned to the right of the picture frame with his left hand clamped over his right wrist, allowing him to flex the muscles of his upper body. Schwarzenegger’s weight is placed on his left leg, which is relatively relaxed, while the right side of his body is tensed to the extent that his right foot almost leaves the wooden floor on which he stands. The right side of his body is tilted slightly towards the viewer, emphasising the musculature of his right bicep, thigh and calf muscles. Schwarzenegger poses in front of a blank white wall to the left of a large paisley-patterned curtain, which balances the composition. He gazes directly at the viewer with a serious, slightly blank expression.</p>
paper print photograph gelatin silver
26 April 2009 – 27 June 2009
2009-06-27
26 April 2009 – 27 June 2009
2009-06-27
2009-04-26
Inverness Museum & Art Gallery (Inverness, UK)
http://www.invernessmuseum.com
2009-04-26
ARTIST ROOMS 2009: Robert Mapplethorpe
Loan-out
25 September 2010 – 21 November 2010
2010-11-21
25 September 2010 – 21 November 2010
2010-11-21
2010-09-25
Towner (Eastbourne, UK)
http://www.townereastbourne.org.uk/
2010-09-25
ARTIST ROOMS 2010: Robert Mapplethorpe
Loan-out
1 March 2012 – 8 July 2012
2012-07-08
1 March 2012 – 8 July 2012
2012-07-08
2012-03-01
Burgh Hall (Dunoon, UK)
2012-03-01
ARTIST ROOMS 2012: Mapplethorpe Scottish Tour
Loan-out
20 July 2012 – 28 October 2012
2012-10-28
20 July 2012 – 28 October 2012
2012-10-28
2012-07-20
Linlithgow Burgh Halls (Linlithgow, UK)
2012-07-20
ARTIST ROOMS 2012: Mapplethorpe Scottish Tour
Loan-out
10 November 2012 – 27 April 2013
2013-04-27
10 November 2012 – 27 April 2013
2013-04-27
2012-11-10
Perth Museum & Art Gallery (Perth, UK)
http://www.pkc.gov.uk/
2012-11-10
ARTIST ROOMS 2012: Mapplethorpe Scottish Tour
Loan-out
11 May 2013 – 11 August 2013
2013-08-11
11 May 2013 – 11 August 2013
2013-08-11
2013-05-11
Old Gala House (Galashiels, UK)
2013-05-11
ARTIST ROOMS 2013: Robert Mapplethorpe
Loan-out
28 February 2015 – 23 May 2015
2015-05-23
28 February 2015 – 23 May 2015
2015-05-23
2015-02-28
Clydebank Museum (Clydebank, UK)
2015-02-28
ARTIST ROOMS 2015: Robert Mapplethorpe
Loan-out
8 August 2015 – 7 November 2015
2015-11-07
8 August 2015 – 7 November 2015
2015-11-07
2015-08-08
Aberystwyth Arts Centre (Aberystwyth, UK)
2015-08-08
ARTIST ROOMS 2015: Robert Mapplethorpe
Loan-out
28 November 2015 – 26 April 2016
2016-04-26
28 November 2015 – 26 April 2016
2016-04-26
2015-11-28
Bowes Museum (Barnard Castle, UK)
http://www.bowesmuseum.org.uk
2015-11-28
ARTIST ROOMS 2015: Robert Mapplethorpe
Loan-out
15 December 2018 – 23 March 2019
2019-03-23
15 December 2018 – 23 March 2019
2019-03-23
2018-12-15
Atkinson Art Gallery (Southport, UK)
2018-12-15
ARTIST ROOMS 2018: Robert Mapplethorpe
Loan-out
24 September 2022 – 31 October 2024
2024-10-31
24 September 2022 – 1 October 2023
2023-10-01
2022-09-24
National Galleries of Scotland (Edinburgh, UK)
2022-09-24
Conversations with the Collection
Collection based display
Arnold Schwarzenegger
support: 341 × 341 mm
frame: 613 × 587 × 38 mm
<a href="/search?gid=999999788" data-gtm-name="tombstone_link_bequest" data-gtm-destination="list-page--search-results">ARTIST ROOMS</a>
Acquired jointly with the National Galleries of Scotland through The d'Offay Donation with assistance from the <a href="/search?gid=999999967" data-gtm-name="tombstone_link_bequest" data-gtm-destination="list-page--search-results">National Heritage Memorial Fund</a> and the <a href="/search?gid=999999968" data-gtm-name="tombstone_link_bequest" data-gtm-destination="list-page--search-results">Art Fund</a> 2008
<div class="text">
<p>In this full-length black and white portrait photograph, the Austrian bodybuilder Arnold Schwarzenegger is shown semi-nude, performing a body-building pose in the artist’s studio. He is positioned to the right of the picture frame with his left hand clamped over his right wrist, allowing him to flex the muscles of his upper body. Schwarzenegger’s weight is placed on his left leg, which is relatively relaxed, while the right side of his body is tensed to the extent that his right foot almost leaves the wooden floor on which he stands. The right side of his body is tilted slightly towards the viewer, emphasising the musculature of his right bicep, thigh and calf muscles. Schwarzenegger poses in front of a blank white wall to the left of a large paisley-patterned curtain, which balances the composition. He gazes directly at the viewer with a serious, slightly blank expression.</p>
<p>This is one of several photographs taken by Mapplethorpe in 1976 in which Schwarzenegger is shown in the same setting performing various body-building poses (another example from this series is reproduced in Arthur C. Danto, <i>Mapplethorpe</i>, London 1992, p.74). Schwarzenegger had emigrated to America from Austria in 1968 and won a variety of professional men’s body-building contests, including five Mr Universe titles and seven Mr Olympia titles. This photograph was taken towards the end of his professional body-building career, shortly before he retired to dedicate himself to acting. By positioning the bodybuilder within a studio setting next to a large curtain, Mapplethorpe makes reference, possibly ironically, to the nineteenth-century Western artistic tradition of representing the nude. In this tradition, the idealised male or female body was depicted either partially clothed or naked, often with drapery similar to that of the curtain in Mapplethorpe’s photograph. As the critic Allen Ellenzweig writes: ‘[Schwarzenegger is posed] beside a fully curved drapery typical of decorative backdrops in the nude and still-life studies of the previous century.’ (Ellenzweig 1992, p.138.)</p>
<p>Mapplethorpe’s depiction of Schwarzenegger can be seen as both a ‘homage and a parody’, as Ellenzweig notes (Ellenzweig 1992, p.138). Moreover, as the curator Christopher Bedford has argued, the homosexual artist has transformed a ‘heterosexual male athlete into an object of his desire’ (Bedford 2010, accessed 9 March 2014). Mapplethorpe encourages the viewer to admire Schwarzenegger’s self-created musculature and bodily excess. But he also seems to poke gentle fun at it by using the heavy curtain to mimic the dramatic curvature of the athlete’s oversized body.</p>
<p>
<b>Further reading</b>
<br/>Allen Ellenzweig, <i>The Homoerotic Photograph: Male Images from Durieu/Delacroix to Mapplethorpe</i>,<i> </i>New York 1992, p.138.<br/>Patricia Morrisroe, <i>Mapplethorpe: A Biography, </i>London 1995, pp.178, 193.<br/>Christopher Bedford, ‘Hard Targets’, Los Angeles County Museum of Art, <a href="http://www.lacma.org/essay-christopher-bedford">http://www.lacma.org/essay-christopher-bedford</a>, paragraph 2, accessed 9 March 2014.</p>
<p>Matthew Macaulay<br/>University of Edinburgh<br/>March 2014</p>
<p>
<i>The University of Edinburgh is a research partner of ARTIST ROOMS.</i>
</p>
</div>

Summary
2017-01-27T00:00:00
summary
SHORT_TEXT
<p>The bodybuilder and budding actor, Arnold Schwarzenegger poses in a space rendered theatrical by a curtain that cuts the image at the top into two halves. The curve of the curtain to the left is echoed in Schwarzenegger’s pose – his extended right leg and curved right arm. It shows Mapplethorpe’s interest in the classical tradition with Schwarzenegger’s exceptionally muscular physique reminiscent of Michelangelo’s figures in the Sistine Chapel.</p>

Online caption
2009-04-16T00:00:00
online-caption
ONLINE_CAPTION
actor adults arts and entertainment body bodybuilding curtain emotions and human qualities emotions, concepts and ideas formal qualities furnishings individuals: male leisure and pastimes male man muscle named individuals nudes objects people photographic portraits recreational activities Schwarzenegger, Arnold strength work and occupations