Today, Robert Mapplethorpe...

...would have turned 65 years old. His work stirred up quite a controversy in the late 80's with nude a pornographic work. It was an exciting time to be in art school - I went to see his show at the Whitney at least three times. He does have less controversial work as well. More about Mapplethorpe here.

Very true. While I marveled at the style of his male figure work, I really had very little interest in the homo-erotic aspect of it. What I ended up loving were both his flower images (yeah, of all things) and his female portrait work. Controversial? Of course. Distasteful? Some of it, sure. But how anyone could not appreciate his vision and skill as an artist is beyond me...