“Unlike the carefully crafted and controlled images that Mapplethorpe would later stage in the studio, his Polaroids are marked by spontaneous invention. Some convey an unexpected tenderness and vulnerability; others have a toughness and immediacy that would give way in later years to a more refined formalism.”

Sylvia Wolf, Mapplethorpe: Polaroids

Our new director Sylvia Wolf has one final show at the Whitney Museum, and it opens this week. It’s Polaroids: Mapplethorpe. You can see a great series of images at The Morning News. (I know Betsey dropped this link into a post a couple months ago, but I wanted to post it again in case anyone missed it like I did!) I think the Henry is pretty excited to have Sylvia.