Self-Portrait

Robert Mapplethorpe

1988

Platinum print

J. Paul Getty Museum

A man with fair skin and light brown hair stares directly at the viewer, holding a cane topped with a skull. He wears a dark turtleneck against a black background. Self portrait of an older Robert Mapplethorpe wearing all black against a black background and holding out a skull cane while gazing directly at the viewer. Kardon, Janet. Robert Mapplethorpe: The Perfect Moment, exh. cat., 2nd ed. (Philadelphia: Institute of Contemporary Art, University of Pennsylvania, 1989), p. 22.