Two Men Dancing and Depictions of Male Homosexuality

Robert Mapplethorpe is infamous for his unapologetic depictions of male homosexuality in Regan-era America. However, his work Two Men Dancing (fig.1) is a key example of an oftenundervalued aspect of his work. Originally a part of a commercial commission for a Dutch dance company that Mapplethorpe later decided to incorporate into his official archives, Two Men Dancing is notably different from Mapplethorpe’s confronting depictions of the gay male S&M community. Despite these differences, the work is nonetheless a political statement within its context and draws on the canon of queer artists throughout history. Mapplethorpe’s expression of male homosexual tenderness in Two Men Dancing is not a deviation from the revolutionary elements of his previous work, but instead asserts the cultural and romantic significance of male homosexuality.

Interestingly, Two Men Dancing stands in stark contrast to the work that Mapplethorpe is most renowned for. Northcross describes his S&M work as a “visual onslaught” filled with “graphic horror”. These works shocked viewers and even contributed to bills in the Senate being proposed to ban any National Endowment for the Arts funding for works featuring homoeroticism and S&M. Within the context of AIDS panic and ‘Culture Wars’ in America in the seventies and eighties, Mapplethorpe’s work being so unapologetically queer was nothing short of revolutionary. The topics that “Reagan’s America wanted to hide behind a fig leaf” were the very subject matter of Mapplethorpe’s work. These violent depictions of underground queer culture were mostly taken between 1977 to 1980. However, after this point, some of Mapplethorpe’s still lives, nudes and portraits began to shift away from the brutal subject matter of the previous period. Two Men Dancing is one of his nudes from this period where he focused his attention on the male figure accentuated by the use of contrast and shadow. On one hand, these works are notably different, it is generally easier to look at an image of a muscled nude figure than of a nail being sliced into blood-soaked genitalia. When placed in comparison with Mapplethorpe’s more visually confronting works, Two Men Dancing seems to be a softer diversion away from his typically more explicit subject matter.

However, the expression of romantic, homosexual tenderness in Two Men Dancing is no less revolutionary in the context of Reagan-era America. Two major aspects of the work contribute to this: firstly, the depiction of the two figures in relation to each other and secondly, the stylistic choices. Importantly, the fact that the image was a commission for a dance company is helpful in understanding the hyper-stylised posing of the subjects; the somewhat rigid, uncomfortable positioning of the figure’s hands in the forefront. This element is furthered by the plastic crowns emphasising the performativity of the subjects.

Contrastingly, the way that the two bodies almost mould into each other with the head on the shoulder and the almost peaceful yearning of the facial expression, seem entirely natural. As such, it is almost as if despite the posed nature of the image, the gentle yearning between the figures remains. In this case, the piece is a celebration of love and exudes a level of comfort found within that love. Further, Mapplethorpe’s classic use of negative space, accentuated by the medium of a glossy silver gelatine print, places this expression of tenderness front and centre. While it is indeed true that queer S&M photography would be shocking to the audience of the time it is also true that for a society that classed gay men within the context of AIDS as disease-ridden undesirables, expressions of tender love between gay men would also be politically charged. Therefore, Two Men Dancing is only a deviation from Mapplethorpe’s usual practice in terms of subject matter; the political queer context remains.

The stylistic influences of the work make a further connection to queer artists of the past, asserting a cultural contingency of queer art. The use of black and white film photography heightens the shadow’s effect, accentuating the harsh lines of the male form. One only has to examine Mapplethorpe’s use of light to see the way that the figures allude to “Greek sculpture [and] Caravaggio”. The influence of Caravaggio is evidenced by the use of Chiaroscuro through the dark background contrasting the light foreground as well as the glossy print making the figures appear as white marble. The hyper-stylised pose of the figures adds the bulky sculptural elements as well as an aestheticized nature that create the allusion to the sculpted male figure as seen with Michelangelo or Canova (fig.2). Additionally, the contrast between the black background and the centralised exposure on the white figures combined with the camera angle places the focus on the figures, like a sculpture emerging out of the dark background. Here, Mapplethorpe draws a link between queer artists of the past and himself. The influence of other queer artists also extends to photographers such as Cecil Beaton, whose influence can be seen through the soft glossy finish of the prints as well as artists who depicted marginalised groups such as Diane Arbus. Consequently, in utilising style and technique to draw connections to past artists, Two Men Dancing can be seen as an exemplification of the techniques of other queer artists.

In this essay, I have conducted a visual analysis of Mapplethorpe’s Two Men Dancing in order to realise it as an expression of revolutionary queer art. In comparison with his previous work, it is far less confronting but within the context of AIDS-panic, the celebration of queer love is nonetheless political as furthered by the influences of other queer artists. Therefore, Mapplethorpe’s Two Men Dancing is a politically charged celebration of queer love.