45 pages • 1 hour read
Patti SmithJust Kids
Nonfiction | Autobiography / Memoir | Adult | Published in 2010A modern alternative to SparkNotes and CliffsNotes, SuperSummary offers high-quality Study Guides with detailed chapter summaries and analysis of major themes, characters, and more.
Key Figures
Patti Smith
Born into a working-class family in Chicago on December 30, 1946, Patti Smith spends her life working towards becoming an artist. From a young age, Smith finds herself drawn to art, literature, and rock and roll, and "hungered to be" (11) an artist, or, at least, "an artist's mistress" (12)—"both muse and maker" (12). After working in several factories in southern New Jersey after high school, Smith finds herself frustrated by the area's unfriendly attitude towards art. Smith embarks on a journey to New York, on her own, hoping to connect with friends from high school. There, she meets Robert Mapplethorpe, an artist her own age, with whom she develops a romantic relationship and lifelong friendship.
Smith's poetry, visual art, and songs are all informed by her way of living. She has superstitious beliefs about the significance of objects, dates, people, and places and imbues her literary and artistic heroes with saint-like qualities. She journeys to France with the sole purpose of writing "a monograph on Arthur Rimbaud" (225). Despite this mysticism and romanticism, Smith has a rebellious nature, recalling that as a child she wondered why people don't just kick in storefront windows. She dresses in wild outfits and hacks her long black hair to resemble Keith Richards of The Rolling Stones. She finds she has "a knack for performing" (165) and "no stage fright" (165), so she begins reading her poems in front of audiences and, later, performing her songs with a live band.
Robert Mapplethorpe
Born into a conservative Catholic family in Long Island on November 4, 1946, Robert Mapplethorpe "was an artist and[…]knew it" (13) since childhood. A "mischievous little boy" (13), Mapplethorpe enjoys using inappropriate colors in his coloring book and relishes "the effect it ha[s] on others" (13). Mapplethorpe maintains this fascination with creating art that disturbs others as he becomes an adult, using explicit images of sadomasochism in his work. Mapplethorpe's childhood home has "no sense of culture or bohemian disorder" (16) to it and, though he has edgy aesthetic taste, Mapplethorpe replicates this sense of order in his workspace, constantly cleaning up Smith's messes while the two live together. While Mapplethorpe's father hopes his son will study "commercial art" (16) in New York, Mapplethorpe has no desire to do so. He does, though, view art as the only viable career option for himself and dedicates himself to it wholly.
While dating Smith, Mapplethorpe begins to explore his "suppressed sexual identity" (77) with ventures into homosexual prostitution, or “hustling.” Though eventually Smith and Mapplethorpe begin dating different people, they remain a platonic couple for years. Mapplethorpe's artwork includes collages, drawings, and installations, all infused with "his creative impulse, his sacred sexual power" (136). Later, Mapplethorpe enters a relationship with Sam Wagstaff, a wealthy art collector who becomes Mapplethorpe's patron. With Wagstaff's support, Mapplethorpe begins to focus on photography exclusively, creating images of nudes, flowers, and gay sadomasochism. After garnering critical success, Mapplethorpe contracts AIDS from Wagstaff in 1986. He passes away from the disease in 1989.
