Letter: Sexual distraction

I. H. Maxwell
Sunday 25 July 1999 00:02 BST
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GILBERT ADAIR is unfair to Robert Mapplethorpe, implying that he is famous only for his photographs about sex (The Guillotine, Culture, 18 July). Mapplethorpe's work includes far more than the overtly sexual images for which he is notorious. His originality of vision and technical mastery, quite apart from his audacity, guarantee that his photographs are seen as Mapplethorpes. Whether his images are "shocking" now, or may become tame in the future, has nothing to do with his real claim to posterity.

I H MAXWELL

Lancaster

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