“The countryside, the daily life of the street is so much richer than doing portraits, than doing nudes.” — Manuel Álvarez Bravo
Manuel Álvarez Bravo was a teenager when he first picked up a camera and began taking pictures, before he enrolled in night classes in painting at the Academia San Carlos, in 1917, or sought instruction in the darkroom of local German photographer Hugo Brehme. Initially self-taught, Álvarez Bravo’s style developed through study of foreign and local photography journals. In these pages, he first encountered the work of Edward Weston and Tina Modotti, who came to Mexico in 1923; the latter became a close colleague and supporter, introducing Álvarez Bravo to the artists of Mexico’s avant-garde, including Diego Rivera, Frida Khalo, and Rufino Tamayo, as well as encouraging him to send photographs to Weston. In the 1930s, Álvarez Bravo met Paul Strand, traveling with him while he worked in Mexico, and Henri Cartier-Bresson. With Cartier-Bresson and Walker Evans he exhibited in a three-man show at the Julien Levy Gallery, New York, in 1935. Mexico was a cultural hub for many in the international avant-garde in these years; André Breton visited, including Álvarez Bravo in the Exposition of Surrealism he organized in 1940 in Mexico City. Although the artist never identified with Surrealism, it was a major theme in the analysis of his pictures throughout his career. Revealing the influence of his formative years following the Mexican Revolution of 1910, Álvarez Bravo would instead speak of his interest in representing the cultural heritage, peasant population, and indigenous roots of the Mexican people in the face of rapid modernization.
Note: Opening quote is from Golden, Tim. “IN THE STUDIO WITH: Manuel Alvarez Bravo; Mexican Myth, Master of Images.” The New York Times, December 16, 1993, sec. Home & Garden. https://www.nytimes.com/1993/12/16/garden/in-the-studio-with-manuel-alvarez-bravo-mexican-myth-master-of-images.html.
Mitra Abbaspour, Associate Curator, Department of Photography, 2014
Works in Collection
59 works
Barda de panteón (Cemetery Wall)
Manuel Álvarez Bravo
1967
Cañas con las que arman redes para atrapa moscos del lago...
Manuel Álvarez Bravo
1964
Coyoacan, Mexico, D.F
Manuel Álvarez Bravo
1975
Cruce de Chalma (Crossing at Chalma)
Manuel Álvarez Bravo
1942
Día de gloria (Day of Glory)
Manuel Álvarez Bravo
1940s
El Sistema nervioso del gran simpático (The Sympathetic N...
Manuel Álvarez Bravo
1929
El color (The Color)
Manuel Álvarez Bravo
1966
El eclipse (The Eclipse)
Manuel Álvarez Bravo
1933
El ensueño (The Daydream)
Manuel Álvarez Bravo
1931
El ensueño (The Daydream)
Manuel Álvarez Bravo
1931
El gran penitente (The Great Penitent)
Manuel Álvarez Bravo
1954
En el templo del tigre rojo (In the Temple of the Red Tiger)
Manuel Álvarez Bravo
1949
Enterramiento en Metepec (Burial at Metepec)
Manuel Álvarez Bravo
1932
Escala de escalas (Ladder of Ladders)
Manuel Álvarez Bravo
1931
José Clemente Orozco
Manuel Álvarez Bravo
1930-1939
La Quema dos (Kiln two)
Manuel Álvarez Bravo
1957
La buena fama durmiendo (The Good Reputation Sleeping)
Manuel Álvarez Bravo
1938-39
La buena fama durmiendo (The Good Reputation Sleeping)
Manuel Álvarez Bravo
1938-39
La de las Bellas Artes (She of the Fine Arts)
Manuel Álvarez Bravo
1933
La hija de los danzantes (The Daughter of the Dancers)
Manuel Álvarez Bravo
1933
La mamá del bolero y el bolero (The Mother of the Shoeshi...
Manuel Álvarez Bravo
1950s
La quema (Kiln)
Manuel Álvarez Bravo
1957
La tierra misma (The Earth Itself)
Manuel Álvarez Bravo
1930s
Los agachados (The Crouched Ones)
Manuel Álvarez Bravo
1934
Exhibitions
20 exhibitionsMay 15, 1940 – Sep 30, 1940
Twenty Centuries of Mexican Art
53 artists · 2 curators
Mar 31, 1943 – Jun 06, 1943
The Latin-American Collection of the Museum of Modern Art
154 artists · 1 curator
Nov 04, 1943 – Dec 07, 1943
Portraits
38 artists
May 24, 1944 – Sep 17, 1944
Photography
63 artists · 1 curator
Jun 20, 1945 – Jun 23, 1946
The Museum Collection of Photographs
25 artists
Jul 27, 1948 – Sep 26, 1948
50 Photographs by 50 Photographers
50 artists · 1 curator
Aug 05, 1952 – Aug 18, 1952
Then and Now
54 artists · 1 curator
Jan 24, 1955 – May 08, 1955
The Family of Man
251 artists · 2 curators
Jan 17, 1956 – Mar 18, 1956
Diogenes with a Camera III
4 artists · 1 curator
Nov 26, 1958 – Jan 18, 1959
Photographs from the Museum Collection
273 artists · 1 curator
Nov 18, 1959 – Nov 29, 1959
30th Anniversary Special Installation - Towards the "New" Museum
140 artists
May 27, 1964
Edward Steichen Photography Center
130 artists · 1 curator
May 27, 1964 – Aug 23, 1964
The Photographer's Eye
105 artists · 1 curator
Oct 25, 1967
Steichen Gallery Reinstallation
77 artists
Jul 07, 1971 – Aug 25, 1971
Manuel Alvarez Bravo
1 artist · 1 curator
Sep 11, 1974 – Dec 01, 1974
Public Landscapes
23 artists · 1 curator
Mar 16, 1976 – Jun 20, 1976
Photography for Collectors
63 artists · 1 curator
May 06, 1976 – Jul 18, 1976
Photography: Recent Acquisitions, 19741976
33 artists · 1 curator
Dec 21, 1979
Edward Steichen Photography Center Reinstallation
102 artists · 1 curator
Oct 23, 1980
Reinstallation of the Collection
129 artists