The American artist Alice Neel (1900 - 1984) poses for Mapplethorpe in this photo wearing a simple black sun dress.

Jack Walls: “Those pictures, like with Lee [Krasner] and Alice Neel, Robert didn’t encourage people to gussy up.” It’s a term that means to dress up, to make extra effort. “He usually would prefer how you looked when he arrived. He would just go with that.”

Permanent Collections

• Los Angeles County Museum of Art / J. Paul Getty Museum, Los Angeles, California

Exhibitions

• Robert Mapplethorpe: Women. Weinstein Gallery, Minneapolis, MN, May 26 - July 10, 2009
  
• The Power of Theatrical Madness. Fotogalerie Forum, Frankfurt, Germany, 1991

Publications

• Alice Neel, un regard engagé. Edited by Angela Lampe. Paris, France: Centre Pompidou, 2020
  
• The Ageless Spirit. Edited by Phillip L Berman and Connie Goldman. New York, NY: Ballantine Books, 1992
• Some Women. Edited by Terry Reece Hackford. Bullfinch Press, 1989. Monograph
  
• Robert Mapplethorpe. Edited by Ikuroh Takano. Tokyo, Japan: Parco, 1987. Monograph