Black, White + Gray: A Portrait of Sam Wagstaff & Robert Mapplethorpe

REVIEW
Yale-educated and born with a silver spoon in his mouth, Sam Wagstaff’s transformation from innovative museum curator to Robert Mapplethorpe’s lover/patron is intensively probed in this engrossing documentary. During the heady years of the ‘70s and ‘80s the NYC art world was abuzz with a new spirit and at the center was photographer Robert Mapplethorpe. Wagstaff pulled Mapplethorpe from his suburban Queens existence, gave him a camera and created the man whose infamous images instilled emotions ranging from awe to anger. Wagstaff brought Mapplethorpe to an art world that seemed to be waiting for him. Mapplethorpe brought the formerly starched-shirt preppie to the world of drugs and gay S&M sex well documented in his still-startling photos. Sam Wagstaff was 25 years older than his lover, but their relationship was symbiotic to its core. They were a pair till both their deaths from AIDS in the late ‘80s. The film also explores the relationship the two men had with musician/poet Patti Smith, whose 1975 debut album “Horses” catapulted her to fame. Black White + Gray explores the artistic troika these three icons created whose effects continue to be see throughout the worlds of art and pop culture.