Tina Modotti

the photographer's 'Photographs - Tina Modotti, Mexico, D. F.' stamp on the reverse, framed, Buhl Collection and Guggenheim Museum exhibition labels on the reverse, 1929

Collection of Frances Toor, editor of Mexican Folkways

By descent to her heirs

Throckmorton Fine Art, New York, 1995

New York, Guggenheim Museum, Speaking with Hands: Photographs from The Buhl Collection, June - September 2004, and 4 other international venues through 2007 (see Appendix 1)

Palm Beach Photographic Centre, In Good Hands: Selected Works from the Buhl Collection, March 2011

Middletown, Delaware, Warner Gallery at St. Andrew's School, In Good Hands: Selected Works from the Buhl Collection, October - November 2011

Jennifer Blessing, Speaking with Hands: Photographs from The Buhl Collection (Guggenheim Foundation, 2004), pp. 127 and 234 (this print)

Valentina Agostinis, Tina Modotti: Gli Anni Luminosi (Pordenone, 1992), p. 124

This print is on double-weight paper with a completely matte surface. The amount of detail present in the print, and the lovely transitions within the paper's long gray scale, illustrate Modotti's skills as a printer. While this print is obviously a silver print, it's preponderance of gray tones and matte surface give it an appearance close to that of a platinum print. The print is in near excellent condition. There is an area of original retouching near the lower left edge. Close examination shows some minor wear on the print's edges and corners. It is hinged to the mat's backboard with three small pieces of linen tape.
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.

In the fall of 1929, Tina Modotti collaborated with artist and puppeteer Louis Bunin on a series of photographs featuring Bunin and his marionettes.  Like Modotti, the Russian-born Bunin shared a penchant for leftist politics; he had studied at The Art Institute of Chicago and came to Mexico to apprentice with Diego Rivera.  As Modotti scholar Sarah Lowe has pointed out, both Modotti and Bunin saw art—in particular, folk art and the theatre—as a way of communicating social and political messages to a population that suffered from widespread illiteracy (Tina Modotti: Photographs, 2005, p. 43).

Eugene O’Neill’s play, The Hairy Ape, with its themes of class struggle, was a perfect vehicle for the left-leaning Bunin and his marionettes.  Featured in the present photograph is the working-class Yank, the ‘hairy ape’ of the title, who attempts to rise to the level of the bourgeoisie.  In Modotti’s photograph, the hapless Yank rails against his station in life, guided by the distant hands of the puppeteer.  As Modotti’s photograph implies, however, it is the puppet master who pulls the strings.  Indeed, the puppeteer’s hands in another marionette production were assigned the role of God by Meyer Levin, a puppeteer who had worked with Bunin in Chicago, and whose puppet stagings were photographed by Andre Kertesz (cf. Lot 265).

This print comes originally from the collection of the anthropologist Frances Toor (1890-1956), the founder and editor of Mexican Folkways, a bilingual magazine that championed the art and culture of Mexico.  Both Modotti and Weston were commissioned by Toor to make photographs for that journal, and both advertised their studios in its pages.