From May 29 to October 4 2026 visit the exhibit The Shapes of Beauty, a collection of over 200 photographs by American photographer Robert Mapplethorpe.

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From May 29 to October 4 2026, Rome’s Ara Pacis Museum is hosting The Shapes of Beauty, a collection of over 200 photographs by American photographer Robert Mapplethorpe. Curated by Denis Curti, the show explores the relationship between art, the human body and the idea of physical perfection.

Divided into roughly six sections, The Shapes of Beauty exhibition is a must-see for those looking for a new twist on the portrayal of the human body on film. Each section is unique, covering various aspects of Mapplethorpe’s work and styles. The beginning section has newspaper clipping collages of sensual scenes, a cross stitched with white carpet, a painting of a flower, and a photograph of a nude man holding a cat. While probably the exhibition’s least exciting section, it is necessary to understand the rest of the work on display and the creative processes Mapplethorpe took.

The next section is dedicated to his two “muses”: friend, lover, and confidant Patti Smith, and bodybuilder and model Lisa Lyon. Smith was one of the most important figures in Mapplethorpe’s life, and the photographs of her on display are cheerful, more candid, and diverse than the other subjects displayed. The photos of Lyon are a representation of Mapplethorpe’s fascination with her masculine physique yet feminine beauty. She is posed flexing and revealing her musculature, evoking a more masculine style of photography, but she is also posed wearing animal print dresses and laying down, appealing to her femininity. These women held great influence in the life of Mapplethorpe, and the care he took in creating the photos is evident on a personal level, rather than an aesthetic level.

Continuing on, we see various self-portraits of Mapplethorpe. Mapplethorpe’s life was short as he passed away at 42 from HIV/AIDS. The self-portraits on display are from the final years of his life, and while he was in great pain taking them and curating them, his pain is not reflected in the pictures presented. He is seen wearing various costumes and in various poses, the most striking of which is him staring at the camera in a leather jacket holding a tommy gun with a pentagram painted on the wall behind him. Contrast this with a photo of him in drag and makeup, smiling off to the side. Human personalities are complex and vibrant and the photos on display provide an excellent look into Mapplethorpe’s. 

After his self-portraits are the portraits he took of various artists and celebrities. Mapplethorpe lived and did a majority of his work in New York City in the 70s and 80s, at first taking pictures of his fellow artist friends, but then branching into celebrity photography. Some of the more recognizable portraits on display are those of Yoko Ono, Arnold Schwarzenegger, Keith Haring, Susan Sarandon, Richard Gere, and Christopher Lambert. While none of the portraits are particularly remarkable in terms of style or posing, the remarkable thing is seeing how many different artists and celebrities he was able to interact with during his short career.

The Shapes of Beauty is the main event. These photos feature mostly nude, muscular male and female models, posing in a way that evokes that of ancient sculpture. There is a wall dedicated to comparisons of each photograph with their real life-inspired counterpart, and the room also contains two first century AD sculptures from the Capitoline Museum: the Statue of Aphrodite and the Statue of an Athlete. The photographs are not your typical “photos of an athlete.” Mapplethorpe instead brings his focus in on very specific body parts. Some pictures are of arms coming from the side of the frame, some are of clenched male and female buttocks, some are bare chests, some are genitals. 

The exhibition is not meant to be pornographic, but rather a celebration of the human physique through simple, personal photographs. No photograph feels out of place within this section, and the point is to examine the beauty of the human body. This beauty is contrasted with flowers as well. Mapplethorpe is famous for his photographs of flowers, many collected in his posthumous 1990 book Flowers. Often images of models are accompanied by a collection of flower images, showing not only the shapes of beauty within the human world, but in the natural world as well.

The exhibition concludes with photos Mapplethorpe took while in Italy. This exhibition is tailored to every location it is shown in, and Mapplethorpe’s photographs here deviate from the others, displaying the beauty of Italian architecture and landscape rather than more flowers or models.

Robert Mapplethorpe’s “The Shapes of Beauty” is a must-see for art and photography lovers everywhere. The presentation is simple, but the themes are complex and evocative. This is not your ordinary photo gallery, and it is not afraid to tell you that either. Spend a good 20-30 minutes wandering through the sections and then be sure to sit for the brief explanatory video between the Lisa Lyon and self-portrait sections to gain more insight into the creative processes of Robert Mapplethorpe.

The exhibition has audio guides available in several languages, a podcast that will be releasing shortly after the exhibition’s opening with two episodes diving deeper into the history of the collection, and it is fully available to experience for those deaf or blind. Opening May 29, you do not want to miss this unique experience. 

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