The show spanned twenty-five years of his career, featuring celebrity portraits, self-portraits, interracial figure studies, floral still lifes, homoerotic images, and collages.
The exhibition, organized by Janet Kardon of the Institute of Contemporary Arts in Philadelphia, opened in the winter of 1988 just months before Mapplethorpe's death from AIDS complications on March 9, 1989.
Despite the controversial character of some of the photographs, critical response was enthusiastic and attendance was robust throughout the show's Philadelphia run (from December 1988 through January 1989).
The issues of censorship and artistic freedom that the show raised occupied the forefront of the debates between conservatives and liberals during the Ronald Reagan era and in its aftermath.
The Perfect Moment grouped photos into three categories: Robert Mapplethorpe's XYZ portfolios, explored three subjects: homosexual sadomasochism (X); flower still lifes (Y); and nude portraits of African American men (Z).
”Please use the poetry as sandwich quotes; I want them to be obvious.” (Patti Smith)The images that sparked the most controversy include: Rosie, a black and white portrait of a very young girl crouched down on a bench outdoors with part of her dress lifted, exposing her genitals, generated controversy because of the subject's age and the issue of consent.
The art critics in Philadelphia, the show's first venue, critiqued Mapplethorpe's work along formalist lines, without commenting on the provocative content of the X portfolio photographs.
However, a campaign launched by the American Family Association, a conservative watchdog group, to censor what they considered "indecent" art changed the climate of reception.
The canceling of the Perfect Moment provoked a censorship battle about national funding for the arts that was front-page news for the next year.
On June 30, 1989, protesters angered by the cancellation of the show by the Corcoran Gallery projected slides of Mapplethorpe's photographs on the facade of the museum.
In March 1990, the anti-pornography Citizens for Community Values in Cincinnati, Ohio, launched a campaign to pressure the Contemporary Arts Center (CAC) to cancel The Perfect Moment.