The Photography at the Mexican Modernism Exhibition at the Denver Art Museum

The photography at the Mexican Modernism Exhibition at the Denver Art Museum is spectacular.  My personal favorite is the portrait below of Frida Kahlo taken by Edward Weston.  Note, by clicking on any of the images, you will be able to view it full screen.

Frida Kahlo - Edward Weston - 1930

Weston and his Hollywood actress and political activist, Tina Modotti, lived in Mexico City from 1923 to 1927 where they opened a portrait studio. This is where they met Diego Rivera.  It was when Weston was living in Carmel, he headed north to San Francisco to see Diego and meet his new wife.  He was intrigued and mesmerized by Frida.  Above Frida is wearing an indigenous dress, a European silk shawl, three strands of Aztec jade beads and intricate dangling earrings

Weston's style shifted to a more direct, sharply focused and structured photographic style known as “straight” photography, which was championed by Alfred Stieglitz.  He was well known for shooting images of nature, close-ups of vegetables and people’s faces.

Large Ladder - Manuel Alvarez Bravo - 1932

Bravo was born in Mexico City in 1902.   He was a photographer most famous for his poetic images of Mexican people and places.  

He was heavily involved with the surge of  artistic renaissance that occurred after  the Mexican Revolution.  He was also influenced by international influences, notably Surrealism, thou his art was truly centered around the Mexican culture.

Mattress - Manuel Alvarez Bravo - 1927

Born into an artistic family, it was after meeting German photographer Hugo Brehme in 1923, that he purchased his first camera.   He was largely self-taught.  Thru his friendship with Tina Modotti, he met Edward Weston and many of the leading artists of the Mexican Renaissance; Diego Rivera, Frida Kahlo, Rufino Tamayo, David Alfaro Siquueiros and Jose Clement Orozco.

He took over Modotti’s job as photographer for the magazine Mexican Folkways after her deportation. He had his first one-man show in 1932.   He also worked at a cameraman on Sergey Eisenstein's film Que Viva Mexico that was never completed.

 Organ Pipe Cacti - Manuel Alvarez Bravo - 1929 - 1930

It was his still photography that gained him fame.  Influenced by Weston, his close up photographs took on an artistic abstract nature.  Later on he was more interested in the urban landscape of Mexico City , a documentary of Mexican life, the villages and its people.

Box of Visions - Manuel Alvarez Bravo - 1929

Person standing behind a fabricated box, holding a dark cloth over his head.

Obstacles - Manuel Alvarez Bravo - 1929

 Burial at Yalalag, Oaxaca - Lola Alvarez Bravo - 1948

One of Lola's  most iconic images was Burial at Yalag.  A somber scene, a funeral procession of Zapotec women in their traditional dress accompanying a coffin.   The contrast of the white flowing dresses and the dark landscape is very moving.  It's also a statement of the women's lack of individual identify as they are not amongst the men in the procession.

She once said, “If my photos have any value, it's because they show a Mexico that no longer exists.” 

One of Frida's life long friends, Lola Alvarez Bravo, was the first Mexican female photographer.  It was when she married Manuel Alvarez Bravo, that she learned her trade.  They were married for about nine years.   She did not come into her own until her separation in 1934.  She too was inspired by Weston and Modotti. 

 

Shark Hunters - Acapulco - Lola Alvarez Bravo - 1950

Photographing life that she found before her. 

 

 La Cruda - The Hangover - Lola Alvarez Bravo - 1945

 

The Dream of the Drowned - Photomontage - Lola Alvarez Bravo - 1945

 

Photomontage is the process and the result of making a composite photograph by cutting, gluing, rearranging and overlapping two or more photographs into a new image.  Sometimes the finished "collage" is photographed so that the final image may appear as a seamless physical print.   Lola combines parts of her photography, the face of the Painter Juan Soriano floating in the water along with the dancers of the Ballet de Folkorico de Mexico City.  This real and fantasized world is a quality shared by the surrealism movement.

Ruth Rivera Marin - Veracruz - Lola Alvarez Bravo - 1950

Ruth Rivera Marín was born in Mexico City on 18 June 1927 to parents Diego Rivera and his first wife, Guadalupe Marin Preciado,  a well-known actress and writer. 
Ruth was the first woman student of the College of Engineering and Architecture at the National Polytechnic Institute and her career centered on teaching the theory and practice related to architecture.                                                                                                                                      

Mexican Landscape II - Photomontage - Lola Alvarez Bravo - 1950

Tepotzotlan - Hall of Convent - Guillermo Kahlo - 1920's

Wilhelm (Guillermo) Kahlo (Frida's father) was born in Germany in 1871 and later moved to Mexico City in 1891 where he had his own photography studio, specializing in buildings, room interiors, factories and machinery.  Upon his arrival he changed his name from Wilhelm to Guillermo.  Following some commercial success, he was commissioned under the regime of Porfirio Díaz, President of Mexico in the early 1900s, to document the country's colonial architecture, government buildings, infrastructure, landmarks, monuments, streets and churches.

 Mexico City's Cathedral - Choir Stalls - Guillermo Kahlo - 1920's

Photography played a huge role in documenting the political events during the Mexican Revolution (1910 – 20).

  

Bell Tower - Guillermo Kahlo - 1920's

In the 1920's Guillermo's church photographs were republished in six volumes titled Iglesias de Mexico / Churches of Mexico.   His photography was no longer seen simply as monuments to European religious tradition, the churches he captured were reinterpreted for their vernacular qualities and the role of the indigenous workers who built them. 

Frida Kahlo Wearing a Plaster Cast - Florence Arquin - 1950

 

Painter, photographer, educator, writer, and critic, Florence Arquin (1900-1974) was active in Chicago, Illinois.   She was widely known for her expertise in the field of Latin American Studies and had a close relationship with Frida Kahlo and Diego Rivera.

 

Seated Frida in Her Hospital Room with Photographs - Lola Alvarez Bravo - 1940's

 

 

 Frida Kahlo in a Wheelchair with a Sun Umbrella - Florence Arquin - 1950's

 

Frida Biting Her Necklace - Lucienne Bloch - 1933

 

Bloch was born in 1909 in Geneva, Switzerland.  She was the youngest child of composer and photographer Ernest Bloch.  In 1917, her family immigrated to America.  She was a prolific artist.  At 15 years old, she attended The Cleveland Institute of Art and later in life enrolled in the Ecole National et Superier des Beaux Arts in Paris.  

In 1929, she pioneered the design of glass sculpture for the Royal Leerdam Crystal Glass Factory in the Netherlands and that caught the eye of Frank Lloyd Wright.  He invited her to teach at Taliesin East where she worked beside fellow artists.

In 1931, she met and began her apprenticeship with Diego Rivera on his frescoes in New York and Detroit.   She formed a close friendship with Frida and they became each others companion and confidant.  She accompanied Frida to Mexico when Frida's mother became ill and was with her in Detroit when Frida suffered a miscarriage.  

An established photographer, she took the only existing photographs of the Rivera's mural, Man at the Crossroads in Rockefeller Center in New York City before it was destroyed.  She also contributed many photographs of Frida and Diego to biographical works about them.

Bloch married one of Rivera’s chief plasterers, Stephen Pope Dimitroff and together they created Fresco murals all over the United States.  Bloch was a Fresco muralist for the Federal Arts Project of the Works Progress Administration from 1934-1939. 

 

 

Frida Kahlo Leaving the Church in Coyoacon - Fritz Henle - 1937

Fritz Henle (June 9, 1909 – January 31, 1993) was a German-born photographer, known as "Mr. Rollei" for his use of the 2.25" square format film used in the Rolleiflex camera.  It was Frida who invited Henle to her home, Casa Azul in Coyoacon, several times to photograph her.
He photographed fashion, portrait, travel and industrial subjects and his work was published by Life,  Mademoiselle, Town & Country and Harper's Bazaar magazines. 

Frida Kahlo - Imogeen Cunningham - 1931

Imogeen Cunningham was born in 1883.  She was an American photographer who was best known for her portraits and her images of plant life.

In 1930, Frida and Diego moved to San Francisco where Diego was working on two separate murals.   That is where Kahlo met Cunningham.  Cunningham captured the essence of Frida with her calm, pensive gaze into the camera dressed with the traditional Mexican shawl (reboza), her jewelry and hairstyle.

Kahlo, known for her self-portraiture, was acutely aware of how she wanted to be portrayed photographically. She once said, “I knew a battlefield of suffering was in my eyes. From then on I started looking directly at the lens, unflinching, unsmiling, determined to show I was a good fighter to the end.”

Also,  she “ … effectively manipulated her self-image before the lens through her gaze, pose, and the carefully constructed symbolism of her clothing, jewelry, and hairstyles.”

DENVER ART MUSEUM

 Exhibition runs thru January 24, 2021

Cranberry Orange Bread with Walnuts and Candied Ginger

Tired of making banana bread, zucchini bread, pumpkin fig bread...  I know I was.  So I played around with a few ingredients and came up with this Cranberry Orange Bread.  I like using the combination of white and brown sugar, gives the bread more depth of a flavor.  It's a very moist and tasty bread and makes for a perfect holiday gift. 

 

Cranberry, Orange, Walnut and Candied Ginger Bread 

2 cups all-purpose flour

1 1/2 tsp baking powder 

1/2  tsp baking soda

3/4 tsp salt

1 tsp cinnamon

1 Tbsp freshly grated orange zest

1/2 cup granulated sugar

1/2 cup brown sugar

1 large egg, room temperature

1/4 cup unsalted butter, room temperature

 1 cup freshly squeezed orange juice

 1 1/2 cup chopped fresh cranberries (cut either in half or quartered)

1/2 cup chopped walnuts

1/8 cup chopped candied ginger (optional)

Directions:

In a medium bowl, mix the flour, baking powder, baking soda, salt, cinnamon and orange zest. 

Using a mixer, cream together the sugars, egg and butter until smooth.  Slowly add the orange juice.

Add the flour mixture until well mixed and then fold in the cranberries, walnuts and ginger.

Pour into a greased and floured 9" x 5" bread pan.  Bake at 350 for about 60 minutes.

 

NOTE:  For holiday gifts, I doubled the recipe and make seven loafs using the tin mini loaf pans that measure 5 23/32" x 3 5/16" x 1 7/8".  Available in the cooking section of the grocery store.  Thank goodness I had stocked up, for they were non existent at the store, all sold out.

Bon Appetit!