Image: Michael Roth, 1983 © Robert Mapplethorpe Foundation. Used by permission
‘Robert Mapplethorpe. Le forme della bellezza’ is on view at the Museo dell’Ara Pacis in Rome until 4 October 2026, and has entered the final weeks of its run. The retrospective opened on 29 May 2026, according to the press release issued by Roma Capitale’s Sovrintendenza Capitolina ai Beni Culturali and dated 28 May 2026.
The exhibition brings together more than 200 photographs by Mapplethorpe, presented as an examination of beauty understood as absolute perfection and formal rigour. The organisers describe the Roman showing as including a previously unseen group of works assembled for this leg of the project.
According to the museum’s own listing, the Rome presentation is the concluding chapter of a touring project that appeared first at the Stanze della Fotografia in Venice and then at Palazzo Reale in Milan.
The exhibition is promoted by Roma Capitale, through its culture department and the Sovrintendenza Capitolina ai Beni Culturali, and is presented within the Musei in Comune Roma network.
