Tina Modotti

mounted to thin board, signed and inscribed 'Para Gabriel Fernandez Ledesma' by the photographer in pencil on the mount, matted, framed, 1927

The photographer to Gabriel Fernandez Ledesma

Fahey/Klein Gallery, Los Angeles

The Collection of Robert Richardson, acquired from the above, 1992

Sotheby's New York, 28 April 2004, Sale 7987, Lot 139

Acquired by the present owner from the above

Los Angeles, Mexico Through Foreign Eyes, The Armand Hammer Museum of Art and Cultural Center, March - June 1994

¡30-30!, Vol. 1, July 1928, p. 5

Sarah Lowe, Tina Modotti Photographs (Philadelphia Museum of Art, 1995), pl. 70

Margaret Hooks, Tina Modotti, Photographer and Revolutionary (London and San Francisco, 1993), rear dust jacket

Mildred Constantine, Tina Modotti, A Fragile Life (New York, 1983), p. 92

Tina Modotti, Masters of Photography (Aperture, 1999), p. 57

Robert Miller and Spencer Throckmorton, Tina Modotti Photographs (New York, 1997), pl. 13

Tina Modotti & Edward Weston: Mexican Years (New York: Throckmorton Fine Art, 1999), pl. 2

Reinhard Schultz, et al., Tina Modotti, Photographien & Dokumente (Berlin: Sozialarchivs, 1990), p. 111

Margaret Hooks, Tina Modotti 55 (London, 2002), p. 69

Tina Modotti, the Mexican Renaissance (Paris, 2000, in conjunction with the exhibition originating at the Moderna Museet, Stockholm), p. 99

Valentina Agostinis, Tina Modotti: Gli anni Luminosi (Pordenone, 1992), p. 130

Luz y Tiempo (Mexico City: Fundacion Cultral Televisa, 1995), p. 244

This print is on light double-weight paper with a matte surface. As is common in gelatin silver prints of this age, there is noticeable silvering in the dark areas, particularly in the dark areas near the print's extremities. The photographer's retouching is visible in several places on the image: in the upper right corner, and on the headstock of the guitar, where she lessened the bright appearance of the metal tuning pegs. A few other small, isolated areas of retouching are visible elsewhere in the image. The silvering of the dark areas around the retouching has made the retouched areas stand out somewhat more visibly than they originally would have. A faint disruption in the print's surface near the upper right corner has been expertly repaired and retouched, and this is visible only upon close examination in raking light (a treatment report is available upon request). None of these issues detracts from the beautiful appearance of this impressive print. The print has been recently re-affixed to its original mount with two tissue hinges at the top edge. The photograph was originally affixed to this mount by a strip of adhesive applied along the top edge of the reverse. A series of looped masking-tape segments are also attached to the mount – these may have been applied at some point in the past when the original mounting adhesive began to fail. The adhesive on this tape is still very slightly active. The mount is somewhat age-darkened, with some isolated areas of foxing and very light occasional soiling.
In response to your inquiry, we are pleased to provide you with a general report of the condition of the property described above. Since we are not professional conservators or restorers, we urge you to consult with a restorer or conservator of your choice who will be better able to provide a detailed, professional report. Prospective buyers should inspect each lot to satisfy themselves as to condition and must understand that any statement made by Sotheby's is merely a subjective qualified opinion.
NOTWITHSTANDING THIS REPORT OR ANY DISCUSSIONS CONCERNING CONDITION OF A LOT, ALL LOTS ARE OFFERED AND SOLD "AS IS" IN ACCORDANCE WITH THE CONDITIONS OF SALE PRINTED IN THE CATALOGUE.

As of this writing, it is believed that the photograph offered here is one of only four prints of this image extant.  One print, sold in these rooms on 15 October 1992, Lot 262, is now in a private collection.  The two other prints are in institutional collections: The Museum of Modern Art, New York City, and the Fundacion Cultural Televisa, Mexico City. 

The photograph offered here is inscribed by Modotti to Gabriel Fernandez Ledesma, a Mexican painter and a founder of the arts journal Forma.  Under Ledesma's editorship, Forma regularly published Modotti's photographs and, in 1927, featured an article on her work which was accompanied by a number of her industrial photographs.  Forma's devotion to new art produced in Mexico ultimately caused its downfall; when it published Edward Weston's modernist study of a toilet bowl, Excusado, in 1927 the Mexican government was scandalized and withdrew its funding, causing the journal to cease publication.  It was through Forma that the young Mexican photographer Manuel Álvarez Bravo, then working as a government typist, first encountered Modotti's work.  Modotti became a mentor to Bravo, and encouraged his work.  Interestingly, the model for one of Bravo's most iconic images, Retrato de lo Eterno (Portrait of the Eternal), 1935, is Gabriel Fernandez Ledesma's wife, the actress and painter Isabel Villasenor.  

Modotti moved to Mexico City in 1923 with her lover and photographic mentor Edward Weston.  From the time of their arrival, the two became involved in the city's overlapping artistic and political circles.  Modotti's embrace of Mexican culture was far more intense than that of Weston, and her sensitivity to the plight of the Mexican people and involvement in radical politics are evident in much of her work.  Modotti composed Bandolier, Corn, and Guitar as part of a series of still life studies of objects symbolizing the Mexican revolution (see Lowe, pls. 68-72).  

Modotti's inclusion of the guitar in this composition corresponds to the importance of music and song in Mexican culture, specifically the corrido, a long-form ballad used to convey news and information about current events.  Modotti further associated this image with music on several occasions, titling one print (now at MoMA) Illustration for a Mexican Song.  When the image appeared in ¡30-30!, the political journal of the artistic/revolutionary group Treintatreintista (with which Gabriel Fernandez Ledesma was also affiliated), this image was titled La Cancione Popular Mexicana (the popular Mexican song).  Song played an important role in disseminating information on a grass-roots level during the Mexican revolution.  Diego Rivera incorporated the idea of the corrido into his murals where it appears as the continuous banner of text snaking along the upper portion of the composition.  In one such mural, Distributing Arms, Rivera depicts Modotti holding a bandolier in the company of other members of the politically active Mexican art scene, Frida Kahlo, Julia Mella, and Vittorio Vidali (see Lots 5 and 84).