Robert Mapplethorpe first burst to national attention by shoving a bull whip up his ass and taking a self portrait. This image asks the age old question: Is it art? Andres Serrano‘s Piss Christ was also in the debate about what should and should not be called art. Andres Serrano has lived to carry on his calling of making provocative images, while Robert Mapplethorpe died of AIDS in 1989. Robert Mapplethorpe’s photography has always been a bit baffling. A recent book of Robert Mapplethorpe Polaroids from the 1970s has been making news as it chronicles his very early work and…