Manuel Álvarez Bravo

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Manuel Álvarez Bravo (born February 4, 1902 in Mexico City , † October 19, 2002 there ) was a Mexican photographer . Manuel Álvarez Bravo is considered a pioneer of artistic photography in Mexico and is considered to be the main representative of Latin American photography of the 20th century.

life and work

Bravo was born in Mexico City on February 4, 1902. In order to contribute to the family income, he left school at the age of twelve and worked in a textile factory. Both his grandfather and father were amateur photographers. This gave him early contact with his future profession, into which he grew through self-study and experimenting with various techniques. His role model, the German-Mexican photographer Hugo Brehme, shaped his ethics as a photographer .

During his studies at the Academia de San Carlos , Bravo dealt with cubism and abstract painting, as well as documentary photography. In 1930 he took over Tina Modotti's work at Mexican Folkways magazine . He also worked for Diego Rivera , José Clemente Orozco and David Alfaro Siqueiros .

In 1931 the Museum of Modern Art in New York acquired some of his work. That same year, Bravo won first prize in a competition, and the next he had his first exhibition in Mexico City. In 1935 he exhibited together with Henri Cartier-Bresson . From 1938 to 1939 he taught at the Escuela Central de Artes. The years that followed were filled with exhibitions across the American continent and participation in the film industry.

The most important works by Álvarez Bravo are socially critical photo series with a clear design language. But also free figure representations, which often offer symbolic-fantastic echoes. Historical and ethnic aspects played a major role in his art. Throughout his life, Manuel Álvarez Bravo had over 150 solo exhibitions and was involved in around 200 group exhibitions.

Bravo has been a member of the Academia de Artes since 1980 . In 1984 he received the Hasselblad Foundation Award . After a successful hundred-year life, Manuel Álvarez Bravo died on October 19, 2002.

Manuel Álvarez Bravo was married to the Mexican photographer Lola Álvarez Bravo .

His legacy of photo negatives, publications and documents was included in the world document heritage in 2017 .

Exhibitions (selection)

Mexico

  • 1932 Galeria Posada
  • 1945 Sociedad de Arte Moderno
  • 1957 Salón de la Plástica Mexicana
  • 1968 Palacio de Bellas Artes
  • 1978 Museo de Arte Moderno, retrospective
  • 1989 Centro Cultural
  • 1997 Centro de la Imagen

United States

  • 1971 Pasadena Art Museum, New York
  • 1987 Institute for Contemporary Photography, New York
  • 1997 Museum of Modern Art, New York
  • 2001 Paul Getti Museum, Los Angeles

Europe

  • 1985 Biblotheca National, Madrid
  • 1986 Musée d'Art Moderne de la Ville, Paris
  • 1992 Musée de l'Elysée, Lausanne

Other countries

  • 1983 Israel Museum, Jerusalem
  • 1994 Imperial Palace, Beijing
  • 1997 Museum of Photographic Arts, Kiyosato, Japan

Publications (selection)

  • Cien años, cien días. Mexico, 2002.
  • Colección del Museo de Arte Moderno de México. Bogotá, 2003.
  • Photopoetry. Chronicle Books, New York 2008.
  • Double elephant. Documentary and Anti-Graphic Photographs. Edited by Thomas Zander. Steidl, Göttingen 2015, ISBN 978-3-86930-743-5 .

Web links

Commons : Manuel Álvarez Bravo  - Collection of images, videos and audio files

swell

  1. ↑ Erika Billeter: Photography Latin America 1860-1993. Canto a la realidad . Benteli Verlag, Bern 1994, ISBN 3-7165-0941-8 , p. 25.
  2. ↑ Academia de Artes: Escultura - Manuel Álvarez Bravo
  3. ^ Alfried Wieczorek, Claude W. Sui (ed.): World stars of photography. The winners of the Hasselblad Foundation. Reiss-Engelhorn-Museen, Mannheim 2008, ISBN 978-3-927774-23-0 , pp. 44–51.
  4. ↑ The archives of negatives, publications and documents of Manuel Álvarez Bravo , UNESCO Memory of the World, accessed June 26, 2019.
  5. ↑ Just icons. In: Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung of February 11, 2016, p. R6.
personal data
SURNAME Álvarez Bravo, Manuel
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Alvarez Bravo, Manuel; Bravo, Manuel Alvarez
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Mexican photographer
DATE OF BIRTH February 4, 1902
PLACE OF BIRTH Mexico city
DATE OF DEATH October 19, 2002
Place of death Mexico city