Tina Modotti was a photographer and a revolutionary—not to mention a seamstress and anti-Fascist activist in Italy, a model in San Francisco, an actress in Hollywood, and a prisoner in Mexico.
Modotti’s life, which began in Italy in 1896, reads like a novel: an extraordinary adventure with a tragic end. Having emigrated to the United States at 16 to join her father, the young woman discovered photography at 20 through Edward Weston, who became her teacher and lover.
The eighty photographs selected from her own archives cover the prolific period she spent in post-revolutionary Mexico in the 1920s. It was a time of revival for art, culture and social agitation, from which she took inspiration. The exhibition reveals two of Modotti’s passions: art and politics.
“Her experience in Mexico is the event that changed her life,” says the exhibition curator Blanca María Monzón, “because she identified with the country, socially, politically and culturally […] Later would come communism that she would embrace until the end of her life.”
In 1928, Modotti was wrongly accused of the murder of her lover, the young Cuban revolutionary Julio Antonio Mella. She was imprisoned, her private life exposed along with her nude pictures, offered as proof of her immorality. She never recovered from this episode, and moved to Berlin, where she all but abandoned photography. Modotti died of a heart attack at the age of 46.
Céline Chevallier
Tina Modotti, Fotógrafa y revolucionaria
Until October 30th, 2012
Centro Cultural Borges
Viamonte 525
Buenos Aires – Argentina
Tel : 0054 5555 5358/9
Monday – Saturday 10am – 9pm, Sunday 12am – 9pm
Adults : 15 $ / Students : 10 $ / Free : under 12 years old.
