Mapplethorpe Foundation Denies Roy Cohn

The Robert Mapplethorpe Foundation has denied the use of a 1981 portrait of lawyer Roy Cohn for the cover of an upcoming biography. According to a report in the New York Times, the refusal was due to the book's negative portrayal of President Donald Trump, a former Cohn protégé.

The biography is titled American Scoundrel: Roy Cohn’s Dark Journey from Joe McCarthy to Donald Trump. It is co-authored by Kai Bird and Susan Goldmark. The Mapplethorpe Foundation, which manages the artist's estate, reportedly decided against licensing the image because of President Trump's characterization in the text.

The Portrait and Its Subject

The photograph, simply titled Roy Cohn, captures the lawyer's direct stare and scarred nose against a black backdrop. This style was a signature of Mapplethorpe's work in his final decade. Writer Steven M.L. Aronson convinced Cohn to pose for the session, which was for Andy Warhol's Interview magazine.

At the time, Roy Cohn was a major New York figure. By day, he represented mobsters, moguls, and media barons, including real estate developer Donald Trump. By night, he partied at Studio 54. Despite being publicly anti-gay, Cohn was secretly closeted. Both Cohn and Mapplethorpe died from AIDS-related complications before the end of the 1980s.

The portrait was an unusual subject for Mapplethorpe in the early 1980s. He was just beginning to photograph high-profile celebrities, having gained fame in the 1970s for his images of New York's S&M scene, most notably in his "X Portfolio" from 1978. A print of the Cohn portrait was acquired by the Los Angeles County Museum of Art and the J. Paul Getty Trust in 2011, via a gift from the foundation.

Political Concerns and Nonprofit Status

The foundation's decision stems from its status as a registered 501(c)(3) nonprofit. Such organizations are prohibited from engaging in certain political activities. The Times reported that the foundation's board feared the image's use on the book cover would be considered a political act. They also reportedly worried that President Trump could retaliate, perhaps by threatening its nonprofit tax status.

President Trump has been heavily involved in targeting cultural institutions during his administration. This has included forcing changes at the Smithsonian Institution and taking control of the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts.

Author Kai Bird told the Times he was "thunderstruck" and "outraged" by the foundation's decision. "It's astonishing that these people are being so cowed, so easily," Bird said. The Mapplethorpe Foundation declined to comment to the Times on Bird's remarks.

Suzanne Nossel, a former chief executive of the free expression group PEN America, also commented to the Times. "The idea that a photograph of a dead mobster lawyer could somehow qualify as political activity, even under the Trump administration, is hard to fathom," she said. "And yet, we're in an environment where no one feels they can rule anything out."

A Legacy of Controversy

This incident touches on a central part of Robert Mapplethorpe's legacy: the censorship of his work. In 1989, months after his death, the Corcoran Gallery of Art in Washington, D.C., canceled a traveling retrospective because it included the "X Portfolio." Conservative politicians had taken issue with the exhibition, which had received a grant from the National Endowment for the Arts. This controversy catapulted Mapplethorpe to the center of the era's culture wars.

The foundation was started by the artist shortly before his death. Its stated mission, according to its website, is to protect his work, advance his creative vision, and promote the causes he cared about.