Maripol, the legendary French photographer who captured downtown New York's cultural explosion in the 1980s, is selling treasures from her personal archive through Joopiter Marketplace's new curated sale titled "Downtown Archive: '80s – '90s New York"news.artnet.
Her iconic Polaroid SX-70 camera documented major figures of the era including Jean-Michel Basquiat, Grace Jones, Madonna, Andy Warhol, and Debbie Harry as she moved between her role as art director for Fiorucci by day and the club scene by nightnews.artnet.
Maripol styled Madonna in the early 1980s and co-produced the film Downtown 81 with boyfriend Edo Bertoglio, featuring Basquiat as a struggling artist in a documentary-style portrait of Lower Manhattan's creative undergroundnews.artnet+1.
The sale includes rare items like a Stephen Sprouse coat with textiles by Andy Warhol, representing artifacts that document two transformative decades in New York City's cultural historynews.artnet.
Arriving from France in 1976 with her trusty Polaroid camera, Maripol became known as the "Polaroid Queen" who intimately captured the gritty, transformative era when hip-hop, graffiti, and new wave culture collided in downtown NYCnews.artnet+1.
Maripol's Polaroid SX-70 Camera Shots
Downtown 81 Film Production
Maripol’s snapshots and ephemera are now at the heart of Joopiter’s new sale on its Marketplace platform. Titled the Downtown Archive: ‘80s – ‘90s New York, it is curated with unique objects that document two transformative decades in the city’s history.