01 Work, The Art Of The Nude, Robert Mapplethorpe's Lisa Lyon, with footnotes #1

Robert Mapplethorpe, (1946 - 1989)
Lisa Lyon
Photograph
15 1/8  by 15 1/4  in. (38.4 by 38.7 cm.)
Private collection

Lisa Lyon (born 1953) is a female bodybuilder and photo model from the United States, and is regarded as one of female bodybuilding's pioneers.

Born in Los Angeles, California in 1953. Lisa Lyon studied art at the University of California at Los Angeles. There she became accomplished in the Japanese art of fencing, kendo, but found herself lacking sufficient upper body strength so she began weight training. This eventually led her into bodybuilding.

Lyon modeled for Helmut Newton, American fine art photographer Robert Mapplethorpe (resulting in the 1983 book Lady: Lisa Lyon), and Marcus Leatherdale, who published two pictures of her in his first catalogue book at Molotov. Lyon's work with Mapplethorpe was specifically impressive due to Mapplethorpe's ability to portray her body as masculine and feminine in his photos, which shows how her body was truly one of a kind.

She was inducted into the IFBB Hall of Fame in 2000 for being a one-woman media-relations activist on behalf of the sport and Elevating bodybuilding to the level of fine art.

Lisa Lyon also had a short acting career.

In creating the Marvel Comics character Elektra, Frank Miller initially used Lyon as a basis for the character's appearance. More on Lisa Lyon 

Robert Mapplethorpe (November 4, 1946 – March 9, 1989) was an American photographer, known for his sensitive yet blunt treatment of controversial subject-matter in the large-scale, highly stylized black and white medium of photography. His work featured an array of subjects, including celebrity portraits, male and female nudes, self-portraits and still-life images of flowers. His most controversial work is that of the BDSM subculture in the late 1960s and early 1970s of New York City. The homoeroticism of this work fuelled a national debate over the public funding of controversial artwork. More on Robert Mapplethorpe

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