April 29th, 2004
Eye Am A Camera: Tina Modotti’s unique view of Mexico
When Tina Modotti died in Mexico in 1942, she left a vast number of photographs which were, for many years, left languishing while the work of her former partner and teacher, the American photographer Edward Weston, was more sought after.
Modotti’s eye for detail and texture, the shadow of a maguey, the shape of a mouth or the furry skin of a chayote, was one of her great strengths. Prior to her taking up her first Graflex camera, she had worked as an actress, and was clearly already aware of the potential and power of lens.
The images on show at the newly-reopened Barbican Gallery – work spanning the four years that the pair spent together, on and off, in Mexico from 1923 – offer a remarkable view of the country just when it was undergoing some of the most fundamental changes, socially and politically, of the 20th century.
Tomoko Sato, assistant curator at the Barbican believes that it was not until after Modotti’s death that her work came to be re-evaluated. “It is true that she was not completely unknown but it was the case for a long time that her images were only well known in certain circles.
But by the time Sotheby’s sold her 1924 shot “Roses”, in 1991 for US$165,000 – at that time the highest figure ever achieved for a single photographic image – her work had begun to reach wider audiences. It now features in museums and collections around the world.
Tina’s life was no less international. She was born in the Italian city of Udine in 1896 and, at the age of thirteen left for San Francisco to join her father. She followed poet Robo de l’Abrie Richey, whom she called her husband even though it is disputed as to whether they were actually married, to Mexico where he died of smallpox shortly after. Modotti later returned with Weston with whom she had been having an affair and she ran his studio in return for help with technique.
“She had no formal training, says Sato, “and some critics have been a little bit prejudiced, but by showing their work together, I think we can see what we couldn’t see before, that in fact although Tina arrived in Mexico as an amateur who was to learn much from Weston, she herself exerted an influence, and went on to have an input in Weston’s development. Certainly his pictorialist style prior to their going to Mexico is really quite different to his later work.”
In addition to “Rosas”, the curator Sarah M. Lowe has brought to the Barbican several thoughtful portraits such as “Aztec Mother and Child” and “Manuel Hernandez Galvan” which were commissioned for the billingual magazine Mexican Folkways.
Also worth a second glance is the proud profile of Julio Mella, who ironically for the student activist and founder of the Cuban Communist Party, appears very much the patrician. Modotti was to enjoy a short but intense relationship with Mella, a former athlete whose physique contributed to a large part of Modotti’s own body of work. She was by his side when he was assassinated in 1929 – presumably by agents of the Cuban president Gerardo Machado.
Following the killing, the Mexican government arrested Tina and she was accused of the shooting. The muralist Diego Rivera, who used her as a model for when he painted the murals in the chapel at Chapingo, was one of her staunchest defenders during the subsequent trial.
Silent film
Among the pictures on show at the Barbican, Modotti herself features prominently, in a series of portraits and nudes taken by Weston, and also, in a coup for Lowe, a rare chance to see one of the films she made before swapping life in front of the lens for the challenge of working behind the camera. “The Tiger’s Coat” is a silent melodrama in which she plays, in a strange twist, a young Mexican woman abandoned by her lover when he discovers her background.
When her other passion, her commitment to the Mexican Communist Party, caused her to be expelled from the country in 1930, she entered yet another phase that saw her photographic output reduced as she threw her energies into political activism. In later years she was to undertake several trips to the Soviet Union and Spain where she all but renounced photography to work as a nurse in Catalunya during the last days of the Republic.
Mysterious death
Her death was the subject of much controversy – some claimed she had been poisoned by her last lover and former comrade, Vidali Vittorio but, says Elena Poniatowska, the acclaimed Mexican chronicler, in “Tinisima”, a novelized account of Modotti’s life, this was unlikely and it is now believed that she died of heart disease. Tina Modotti is buried in the Panteon de Dolores in Mexico City.
Tina Modotti and Edward Weston: The Mexican Years is on at The Barbican Gallery, London until 1 August 2004. The gallery stays open until 9pm on Wednesdays.
For more information on the accompanying series of talks and events and a short season of contemporary Mexican films telephone 020 7638 8891 or visit www.barbican.org.uk
Further reading:
Tinisima by Elena Poniatowska, Faber and Faber
Tina Modotti: Between Art and Revolution by Letizia Argenteri, Yale University Press
Tina Modotti: Masters of Photography Photographs by Tina Modotti; Essay by Margaret Hooks, Aperture Books
Filed in Exhibitions in the UK, Frida Kahlo
“Pedro Limon has been sinfully busy this year. When he wasn’t at his restaurant manager job, he was jogging or lifting weights. In the wee hours, he studied the Bible and watched religious movies. On weekends, it was church and talks with his priest. And in all these months, he didn’t have a single shot of tequila or a date with a girl. If you want to be Jesus during Easter, expect to make sacrifices.” So writes Jennifer Mena, in an excellent article about the Iztapalapa Passion Play published in the Los Angeles Times a couple of years ago: 
The scenario has been a little different in the central Mexican town of Toliman. In the ultimate act of self-sacrifice, the presidente municipal has made the role his own, playing Jesus three years’ running and attracting national and local TV coverage. No matter that he neglected to pay utility bills, prompting the state electricity company to ‘shut-down’ street lighting in Toliman for months on end; putting on a royal purple tunic and a real crown of thorns once a year appears enough to resurrect a political career, at least for another twelve months. 
