MODOTTI TINA (1896 1942) Roses

Sale 2132 - Lot 346

Price Realized: $ 8,400

?Final Price Realized includes Buyer’s Premium added to Hammer Price

Estimate: $ 8,000 - $ 12,000

MODOTTI, TINA (1896-1942)
"Roses." Platinum contact print, 7 3/4x9 3/4 inches (19.7x24.8 cm.), with Ava Vargas's signature and notations "PA" [Artist's Proof], in pencil, and the Fototeca del Instituto Nacional de Antropología e Historia hand stamp on verso. 1924; printed 1993

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Additional Details

A posthumous print from Modotti''s original negative, produced by Ava Vargas Photographic Works, London.

Tina Modotti: Photographs, 46.

Tina Modotti was a political radical, artist, silent-film actress, and muse who lived a life of passion, ideas, and expression. Born in Italy, Modotti immigrated to the United States in 1913, where she pursued a career in Hollywood before meeting Edward Weston and moving to Mexico City with him in 1923. His lover and subject, Modotti was also Weston''s protege. Modotti operated a portrait studio with Weston until he returned to the United States in 1926; at the same time she pursued photography as a medium of self-expression. A year into Modotti''s short photographic career, she produced this romantic, tactile image of roses. The tight framing of the petals, which are both sensual and elegant, conveys an intimate and erotic feel.

Modotti formed a powerful connection to her adopted home, photographing the vibrant, revolutionary culture she was a part of. Many of Modotti''s best-known photographs date from this intense period. In 1930 Modotti was forced to leave the country because of her association with the leftist movement, although after a period of travel and further political involvement in Europe, she was allowed to return. Often eclipsed by her relationships with powerful men (despite exhibitions and publications of work during her lifetime) it is only recently that Modotti has emerged as an artist in her own right. Her photography seamlessly blends a fine modernist sensibility with unique form of expression that often addresses social and political themes.