[analyse_image type=”featured” src=”https:\/\/www.artnews.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/GettyImages-578551334.jpg?w=1024″]<\/p>\n
\n\tThe Robert Mapplethorpe Foundation denied the use of a 1981 portrait by the artist of notorious New York lawyer Roy M. Cohn for the cover of a forthcoming biography, titled American Scoundrel: Roy Cohn\u2018s Dark Journey from Joe McCarthy to Donald Trump<\/em>, because of its negative affiliation with the sitting US president, according to the New York Times<\/em>.<\/p>\n \n\tThe portrait in question, simply titled Roy Cohn<\/em>, captures the lawyer\u2019s striking outward stare and scar-split nose head on, surrounded by a black backdrop, a signature of Mapplethorpe\u2019s images during the final decade of his life.<\/p>\n \n\tAt the time it was made, Cohn was the subject of an interview for an issue of Andy Warhol\u2019s Interview<\/em> magazine. Writer and book editor Steven M.L. Aronson, who authored the piece, convinced Cohn to pose for Mapplethorpe, who was at the peak of his fame at the time. By then, Cohn was a major New York figure who, by day, represented mobsters, moguls, and media barons, including then real estate developer and prot\u00e9g\u00e9 Donald Trump; by night, he partied at Studio.<\/p>\n \n\tThe subject was unusual, yet notable for Mapplethorpe, who during the 1970s turned his lens on New York\u2019s S&M scene, most notably in his \u201cX Portfolio\u201d (1978); in the early \u201980s, he was just beginning to start photographing high-profile celebrities, collectors, and artists. Despite being publicly anti-gay, however, Cohn himself was secretly closeted. Before the end of the \u201980s, both Cohn and Mapplethorpe died from AIDS-related complications.<\/p>\n \n\tA print of the photograph was acquired by the Los Angeles County Museum of Art and the J. Paul Getty Trust, via a gift from the Mapplethorpe foundation in 2011.<\/p>\n \n\tThe Mapplethorpe Foundation, which oversees the artist\u2019s estate and collection, reportedly decided against licensing the image\u2019s use for American Scoundrel<\/em>, co-authored by Kai Bird and Susan Goldmark, because of President Trump\u2019s negative characterization in the book. As a registered 501(c)(3) nonprofit, the foundation is prohibited from engaging in certain political activities and was reportedly concerned that the image\u2019s use on the book cover would be considered a political act. The artist started his eponymous foundation shortly before his death \u201cto protect his work, to advance his creative vision and to promote the causes he cared about,\u201d according to its website.<\/p>\n \n\tAccording to the Times<\/em>, \u201cthe foundation\u2019s board feared that Mr. Trump could retaliate, perhaps by threatening its nonprofit tax status,\u201d if he took offense to his characterization in the book. For his part, Trump has been heavily involved in taking aim at cultural institutions during his second administration, including forcing changes at the Smithsonian Institution and taking control\u00a0of the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts.<\/p>\n \n\tBird told the Times<\/em> he \u201cthunderstruck\u201d and \u201coutraged\u201d at the foundation\u2019s decision, adding \u201cIt\u2019s astonishing that these people are being so cowed, so easily.\u201d The Mapplethorpe declined to comment to the Times<\/em> about Bird\u2019s comments. (A request for further comment from ARTnews<\/em> was also not returned.)<\/p>\n \n\tPart of Mapplethorpe\u2019s legacy is a controversy surrounding the censorship of his work. In 1989, months after his death, the now-defunct Corcoran Gallery of Art in Washington, D.C., canceled its presentation of a traveling retrospective because of the inclusion of the \u201cX Portfolio.\u201d The institution had received a grant from the National Endowment for the Arts to realize the exhibition, which conservative politicians took issue with, catapulting Mapplethorpe\u2019s to the center of the era\u2019s culture wars. <\/p>\n \n\t\u201cThe idea that a photograph of a dead mobster lawyer could somehow qualify as political activity, even under the Trump administration, is hard to fathom,\u201d Suzanne Nossel, a former chief executive of the free expression group PEN America, told the Times<\/em> of the foundation\u2019s decision. \u201cAnd yet, we\u2019re in an environment where no one feels they can rule anything out.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n [analyse_source url=”https:\/\/www.artnews.com\/art-news\/news\/robert-mapplethorpe-foundation-roy-cohn-portrait-denial-1234796227\/”]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" [analyse_image type=”featured” src=”https:\/\/www.artnews.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/GettyImages-578551334.jpg?w=1024″] The Robert Mapplethorpe Foundation denied the use of a 1981 portrait by the artist of notorious New York lawyer Roy M. Cohn for the cover of a forthcoming biography, titled American Scoundrel: Roy Cohn\u2018s Dark Journey from Joe McCarthy to Donald Trump, because of its negative affiliation with the sitting US president, […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[61,226],"class_list":["post-2117390","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-politics","tag-artnews-com","tag-crawlmanager"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2117390","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=2117390"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2117390\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=2117390"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=2117390"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=2117390"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}