ROBERT MAPPLETHORPE: 2000 Calendar — CD Case Edition, teNeues, 1999

Desk calendar, teNeues Verlag, Germany, 1999. Twelve loose monthly cards with printed cover and rear inserts in original clear CD jewel case; 12 × 14 cm; black-and-white offset printing; calendar text in English, German and French. ISBN 3-8238-3735-4.

Condition: very good; complete with all twelve monthly cards and original jewel case. Light scuffing and surface scratching to the clear plastic case; cards appear clean and well preserved. Original publisher’s price and ISBN panel retained.

Issued in 1999 for the calendar year 2000, this compact desk calendar places twelve of Mapplethorpe’s male figure studies into a format intended for ordinary monthly use. Throughout the 1980s, Mapplethorpe combined carefully controlled composition with stylised photographs of nudes, portraits, flowers and still lifes, bringing classical form into contact with subjects that remained culturally and politically contested.

Each photograph is assigned a month, displayed temporarily and then replaced. The standard CD jewel case functions as both container and stand, locating the object precisely within the visual and technological language of the late 1990s.

Its calendar function has expired, but the object remains: a portable sequence of twelve photographs and a record of how Mapplethorpe’s work moved from gallery and museum circulation into the domestic space of a desk. Complete examples retaining the cards, inserts and original case are now difficult to locate.

Securely packed; tracked UK and international shipping available.