The Blanton Museum of Art to open Manuel Álvarez Bravo & His Contemporaries

Written by Ursula Davila-Villa Thursday, 11 March 2010 21:04

Austin, TX - In a special collaboration, the Harry Ransom Center and the Blanton Museum of Art presentManuel Álvarez Bravo and His Contemporaries: Photographs from the Collections of the Harry Ransom Centerand The Blanton Museum of Art. Organized by The Blanton as part of The University of Texas at Austin’s celebration of the Mexican Bicentennial, the exhibition will feature 45 iconic images by “the father of Mexican photography,” drawn from the Harry Ransom Center and The Blanton—UT’s two primary collections. The show will also include excellent examples of work by Álvarez Bravo’s contemporaries including Henri Cartier-Bresson, Dorothea Lange, Albert Renger-Patzsch, Paul Strand, and Edward Weston. 

Ursula Davila-Villa, The Blanton’s associate curator of Latin American art remarks, “Manuel Álvarez Bravo was a major figure during Mexico’s modernist period, a moment of great transformation. His work offers a unique perspective of Mexico from that of his contemporaries such as Rivera and Orozco, with an artistic sensibility that brings together local and international preoccupations of the early twentieth century.”

The works in the exhibition will be supplemented with seven volumes from UT’s Nettie Benson Library—an extraordinary repository for Latin American archives—and the Fine Arts Library, which will provide a frame of reference for understanding Álvarez Bravo’s role in Mexico’s transformation from revolutionary times into modernity. These documents will underscore the extent of the trans-Atlantic and cross-border dialogue that took place between artistic circles from the 1920s through the 1950s.

Many events are presented as part of the University of Texas at Austin’s programming to celebrate the Mexican Bicentennial. On exhibition 20 March through 1 August, 2010.

Several pubic programs will be held in conjunction with the exhibition.A series of rare Mexican films, including Que Viva Mexico! directed by Sergei Eisenstein, for which Álvarez Bravo served as cameramen—will illustrate the artist’s involvement with the international avant-garde.

Blanton Museum of Art

MLK at Congress (200 East MLK)

Austin, Texas 78701 / Visit http://blantonmuseum.org/