By Kristen Peterson

Tue, Oct 31, 2006 (7:26 a.m.)

The big challenge to any art museum on the Strip is the fact that tourists aren't really here to see art. Eat, drink, shop and gamble are the biggies. Museum directors have learned that the way to draw tourists is to present expensive masterworks.

So adding an exhibit of Robert Mapplethorpe photos seems risky if you want crowds.

Although "Robert Mapplethorpe and the Classical Tradition," on display through Feb. 18 at the Guggenheim Hermitage Museum, is a polished hit parade of the late photographer's formal works, it might not have the eye candy the tourists are hungry for.

The educational exhibit connects Mapplethorpe's nudes to Mannerist prints and showcases the photographer's love of classical sculpture. Elizabeth Herridge, managing director of Guggenheim Hermitage, says that a version of this exhibit shown at the New York Guggenheim was one of the most highly attended exhibitions ever.

So why isn't it drawing crowds in Las Vegas ?

During two hours at the Guggenheim Hermitage on Wednesday museum guards outnumbered the attendees. Most perplexing was the French tour group that came through, filling the museum momentarily with whispers and footsteps. The group was there all of seven minutes. A noon guided tour had only two visitors. A small crowd that was there 15 minutes prior was gone, which is surprising given the $19.50 admission fee.

Were they expecting the extremely explicit images that made Mapplethorpe so controversial? Who knows? The photographer may be remembered for his sadomasochism, but this exhibit focuses mostly on the photographer's love of sculpture and the body beautiful.

Several nudes of bodybuilders Lisa Lyon and Lydia Cheng are included as well as the homoerotic and statuesque portraits of male nudes with an emphasis on the black male body.

Herridge says the show, "demonstrates that artist's fascination with the human form was not limited to antiquity."

Not congruent with the Mannerist theme are the dueling self-portraits of the artist, as well as the famous image of a young Patti Smith and Mapplethorpe's beautiful black-and-white still lifes of flowers .

Most of the prints are familiar works that have made their way into books, calendars and postcards. This is not a retrospective, however. Because of its focus on the classical tradition, there isn't a lot of variety.

This is the museum's first exhibit of a solo artist - the recent Rubens exhibit included works by his pupils Anthony van Dyck and Jacob Jordans. It's also Guggenheim Hermitage's first photography exhibit. It follows the May opening of the Ansel Adams exhibit at the Bellagio Gallery of Fine Art, which means two simultaneous photo exhibits on the Strip - a significant change from the masterworks and Russian artifacts that have been featured in both spaces.

Herridge points out the impressive feat accomplished by the Long Island-born photographer during the 1970s and '80s.

"The medium of photography, in Mapplethorpe's hands, was able to be used in such a masterful way so as to produce an experience of a three-dimensional sculptural form on a two-dimensional picture plane," Herridge says via e-mail. "This is an incredible achievement and in pre-Photoshop days, too!"