Tina Modotti (born Assunta Adelaide Luigia Modotti Mondini, August 16/17, 1896 – January 5, 1942) was an
Italian American
Italian Americans ( it, italoamericani or ''italo-americani'', ) are Americans who have full or partial Italian ancestry. The largest concentrations of Italian Americans are in the urban Northeast and industrial Midwestern metropolitan area ...
photographer, model, actor, and
revolutionary political activist for the
Comintern
The Communist International (Comintern), also known as the Third International, was a Soviet Union, Soviet-controlled international organization founded in 1919 that advocated world communism. The Comintern resolved at its Second Congress to ...
. She left Italy in 1913 and moved to the United States, where she settled in San Francisco with her father and sister. In San Francisco, Modotti worked as a model and, later, as a photographer. In 1922 she moved to
Mexico
Mexico ( Spanish: México), officially the United Mexican States, is a country in the southern portion of North America. It is bordered to the north by the United States; to the south and west by the Pacific Ocean; to the southeast by Guate ...
, where she became an active member of the
Mexican Communist Party
The Mexican Communist Party ( es, Partido Comunista Mexicano, PCM) was a communist party in Mexico. It was founded in 1917 as the Socialist Workers' Party (, PSO) by Manabendra Nath Roy, a left-wing Indian revolutionary. The PSO changed its nam ...
.
Early life
Modotti was born Assunta Adelaide Luigia Modotti Mondini in
Udine
Udine ( , ; fur, Udin; la, Utinum) is a city and ''comune'' in north-eastern Italy, in the middle of the Friuli Venezia Giulia region, between the Adriatic Sea and the Alps (''Alpi Carniche''). Its population was 100,514 in 2012, 176,000 with ...
,
Friuli
Friuli ( fur, Friûl, sl, Furlanija, german: Friaul) is an area of Northeast Italy with its own particular cultural and historical identity containing 1,000,000 Friulians. It comprises the major part of the autonomous region Friuli Venezia Giul ...
, Italy.
Her mother, Assunta, was a seamstress; her father, Giuseppe, was a mason.
After spending time living in Austria, where her parents were migrant workers, the family returned to Udine, where the young Modotti worked in a textile factory. In 1913, at the age of 16, she immigrated to the United States to join her father in San Francisco, California.
[ Departing from Genoa aboard the SS ''Moltke'' on June 24, she traveled alone, according to Letizia Argenteri, author of ''Tina Modotti: Between Art and Revolution'', arriving on July 8 at ]Ellis Island
Ellis Island is a federally owned island in New York Harbor, situated within the U.S. states of New York and New Jersey, that was the busiest immigrant inspection and processing station in the United States. From 1892 to 1954, nearly 12 m ...
, where she "declared herself to be single, five feet one inch tall, in good mental and physical health, and a student." She carried with her "100 dollars and a train ticket for San Francisco, where her father and her sister Mercedes resided."
Acting career
Attracted to the performing arts supported by the Italian émigré community in the San Francisco Bay Area
The San Francisco Bay Area, often referred to as simply the Bay Area, is a populous region surrounding the San Francisco, San Pablo, and Suisun Bay estuaries in Northern California. The Bay Area is defined by the Association of Bay Area Gov ...
, Modotti experimented with acting. She appeared in several plays, operas, and silent movies
A silent film is a film with no synchronized Sound recording and reproduction, recorded sound (or more generally, no audible dialogue). Though silent films convey narrative and emotion visually, various plot elements (such as a setting or era) ...
in the late 1910s and early 1920s, and also worked as an artist's model.
In 1917, she met Roubaix "Robo" de l'Abrie Richey.[ Originally a farm boy from ]Oregon
Oregon () is a state in the Pacific Northwest region of the Western United States. The Columbia River delineates much of Oregon's northern boundary with Washington, while the Snake River delineates much of its eastern boundary with Idah ...
named Ruby Ritchie, the artist and poet assumed the more bohemian name Roubaix. In 1918, Modotti began a romantic relationship with him and moved with him to Los Angeles to pursue a career in the motion picture industry.[ Although the couple cohabited and lived as a "married couple", they were not married. She was listed as a U.S. citizen in the 1920 Los Angeles township census. Often playing the femme fatale, Modotti's movie career culminated in the 1920 film ''The Tiger's Coat''. She had minor parts in two other films.][
The couple entered into a bohemian circle of friends. One of these fellow bohemians was Ricardo Gómez Robelo. Another was the photographer, ]Edward Weston
Edward Henry Weston (March 24, 1886 – January 1, 1958) was a 20th-century American photographer. He has been called "one of the most innovative and influential American photographers..." and "one of the masters of 20th century photography." ...
.
Photography career
As a young girl in Italy her uncle, Pietro Modotti, maintained a photography studio. Later in the U.S., her father briefly ran a similar studio in San Francisco. While in Los Angeles, she met the photographer Edward Weston and his creative partner Margrethe Mather. It was through her relationship with Weston that Modotti developed as an important fine art photographer and documentarian. By 1921, Modotti was Weston's lover.[ Ricardo Gómez Robelo became the head of Mexico's Ministry of Education's Fine Arts Department, and persuaded Robo to come to Mexico with a promise of a job and a studio.
Robo left for Mexico in December 1921.][ Perhaps unaware of his affair with Modotti, Robo took with him prints of Weston's, hoping to mount an exhibition of his and Weston's work in Mexico. While she was on her way to be with Robo, Modotti received word of his death from ]smallpox
Smallpox was an infectious disease caused by variola virus (often called smallpox virus) which belongs to the genus Orthopoxvirus. The last naturally occurring case was diagnosed in October 1977, and the World Health Organization (WHO) ce ...
on February 9, 1922.[ Devastated, she arrived two days after his death. In March 1922, determined to see Robo's vision realized, she mounted a two-week exhibition of Robo's and Weston's work at the National Academy of Fine Arts in ]Mexico City
Mexico City ( es, link=no, Ciudad de México, ; abbr.: CDMX; Nahuatl: ''Altepetl Mexico'') is the capital and largest city of Mexico, and the most populous city in North America. One of the world's alpha cities, it is located in the Valley of ...
. She sustained a second loss with the death of her father, which forced her to return to San Francisco later in March 1922. In 1923, Modotti returned to Mexico City with Weston and his son Chandler, leaving behind Weston's wife Flora and their youngest three children.["Edward Weston: Enduring Vision"](_blank)
The Getty, Retrieved September 1, 2015. She agreed to run Weston's studio free of charge in return for his mentoring her in photography.
Together they opened a portrait studio in Mexico City. Modotti and Weston quickly gravitated toward the capital's bohemian scene and used their connections to create an expanding portrait business. Together they found a community of cultural and political " avant-gardists", which included Frida Kahlo
Magdalena Carmen Frida Kahlo y Calderón (; 6 July 1907 – 13 July 1954) was a Mexican painter known for her many portraits, self-portraits, and works inspired by the nature and artifacts of Mexico. Inspired by Culture of Mexico, the country's ...
, Lupe Marín Lupe may refer to:
People
* Lupe Aquino (born 1963), Mexican boxer
* Lupe Fiasco (born 1982), American hip hop artist
* Lupe Ontiveros (1942–2012), Mexican-American film and television actress
* Lupe Pintor (born 1955), Mexican boxer
* Lupe Vél ...
, Diego Rivera
Diego María de la Concepción Juan Nepomuceno Estanislao de la Rivera y Barrientos Acosta y Rodríguez, known as Diego Rivera (; December 8, 1886 – November 24, 1957), was a prominent Mexican painter. His large frescoes helped establish the ...
, and Jean Charlot
Louis Henri Jean Charlot (February 8, 1898 – March 20, 1979) was a French-born American painter and illustrator, active mainly in Mexico and the United States.
Life
Charlot was born in Paris. His father, Henri, owned an import-export business ...
.[ In general, Weston was moved by the landscape and folk art of Mexico to create abstract works, while Modotti was more captivated by the people of Mexico and blended this human interest with a modernist aesthetic, all the while shunning the term 'artist', insisting she merely wanted to "capture social realities".] Modotti also became the photographer of choice for the blossoming Mexican mural movement, documenting the works of José Clemente Orozco
José Clemente Orozco (November 23, 1883 – September 7, 1949) was a Mexican caricaturist and painter, who specialized in political murals that established the Mexican Mural Renaissance together with murals by Diego Rivera, David Alfaro ...
and Diego Rivera
Diego María de la Concepción Juan Nepomuceno Estanislao de la Rivera y Barrientos Acosta y Rodríguez, known as Diego Rivera (; December 8, 1886 – November 24, 1957), was a prominent Mexican painter. His large frescoes helped establish the ...
. Between 1924 and 1928, Modotti took hundreds of photographs of Rivera's murals at the Secretariat of Public Education
The Mexican Secretariat of Public Education ( in Spanish ''Secretaría de Educación Pública'', ''SEP'') is a federal government authority with cabinet representation and the responsibility for overseeing the development and implementation of ...
in Mexico City. Modotti's visual vocabulary matured during this period, such as her formal experiments with architectural interiors, blooming flowers, urban landscapes, and especially in her many beautiful images of peasants and workers during the depression. In 1926, Modotti and Weston were commissioned by Anita Brenner
Anita Brenner (born Hanna Brenner; 13 August 1905 – 1 December 1974) was a transnational Jewish scholar and intellectual, who wrote extensively in English about the art, culture, and history of Mexico. She was born in Mexico, raised and educa ...
to travel around Mexico and take photographs for what would become her influential book ''Idols Behind Altars''.[Albers, Patricia and Stourdze, Sam]
"Tina Modotti and the Mexican Renaissance"
Moderna Museet, Retrieved September 1, 2015. The relative contributions of Modotti and Weston to the project has been debated. Weston's son Brett, who accompanied the two on the project, indicated that the photographs were taken by Edward Weston.
In 1925, Modotti joined International Red Aid
International Red Aid (also commonly known by its Russian acronym MOPR ( ru , МОПР, for: ''Междунаро́дная организа́ция по́мощи борца́м револю́ции'' - Mezhdunarodnaya organizatsiya pomoshchi bor ...
, a Communist
Communism (from Latin la, communis, lit=common, universal, label=none) is a far-left sociopolitical, philosophical, and economic ideology and current within the socialist movement whose goal is the establishment of a communist society, a ...
organization.[ In November 1926, Weston left Mexico and returned to California.][ During this time Modotti met several political radicals and Communists, including three ]Mexican Communist Party
The Mexican Communist Party ( es, Partido Comunista Mexicano, PCM) was a communist party in Mexico. It was founded in 1917 as the Socialist Workers' Party (, PSO) by Manabendra Nath Roy, a left-wing Indian revolutionary. The PSO changed its nam ...
leaders who would all eventually become romantically linked with her: Xavier Guerrero
Xavier Guerrero (December 3, 1896 San Pedro de las Colonias, Coahuila – June 29, 1974 Mexico City) was one of the pioneers of the Mexican muralism movement in the early 20th century. He was introduced to painting through working with his father ...
, Julio Antonio Mella
Julio Antonio Mella McPartland (25 March 1903 – 10 January 1929) was a Cuban political activist and one of the founders of the original Communist Party of Cuba. Mella studied law at the University of Havana but was expelled in 1925. He was wo ...
, and Vittorio Vidali
Vittorio Vidali (27 September 1900 – 9 November 1983), also known as Vittorio Vidale, Enea Sormenti, Jacobo Hurwitz Zender, Carlos Contreras, and "Comandante Carlos", was an Italian communist. After being expelled from Italy with the rise ...
.
Starting in 1927, a much more politically active Modotti (she joined the Mexican Communist Party that year) found her focus shifting and more of her work becoming politically motivated. Around that time her photographs began appearing in publications such as ''Mexican Folkways'', ''Forma'', and the more radically motivated ''El Machete'', the German Communist Party
The German Communist Party (german: Deutsche Kommunistische Partei, ) is a communist party in Germany. The DKP supports left positions and was an observer member of the European Left. At the end of February 2016 it left the European party.
Hi ...
's ''Arbeiter-Illustrierte-Zeitung
''Arbeiter-Illustrierte-Zeitung'' or ''AIZ'' (in English, ''The Workers Pictorial Newspaper'') was a German illustrated magazine published between 1924 and March 1933 in Berlin, and afterward in Prague and finally Paris until 1938. Anti-Fascism ...
'' (AIZ), and ''New Masses
''New Masses'' (1926–1948) was an American Marxist magazine closely associated with the Communist Party USA. It succeeded both ''The Masses'' (1912–1917) and ''The Liberator''. ''New Masses'' was later merged into '' Masses & Mainstream'' (19 ...
''.[
Mexican photographer ]Manuel Álvarez Bravo
Manuel Álvarez Bravo (February 4, 1902 – October 19, 2002) was a Mexican artistic photographer and one of the most important figures in 20th century Latin American photography. He was born and raised in Mexico City. While he took art classes a ...
divided Modotti's career as a photographer into two distinct categories: "Romantic" and "Revolutionary", with the former period including her time spent as Weston's darkroom assistant, office manager and, finally, creative partner. Her later works were the focus of her one-woman retrospective exhibition at the National Library
A national library is a library established by a government as a country's preeminent repository of information. Unlike public libraries, these rarely allow citizens to borrow books. Often, they include numerous rare, valuable, or significant w ...
in December 1929, which was advertised as "The First Revolutionary Photographic Exhibition In Mexico".
Life as an activist
Modotti began a relationship with Xavier Guerrero, who was a member of the Mexican Communist Party, in 1927. Guerrero was sent to Moscow for a year to take part in political party training, and by 1928 Modotti had met and begun a relationship with the exiled Cuban activist Julio Antonio Mella.[ During this same period, economic and political conflicts within Mexico and indeed much of Central and South America were intensifying and this included increased repression of political dissidents. In 1929, Mella was assassinated while walking in the street with Modotti from the offices of Red Aid, a Comintern-attached organization that offered relief to and defended victims of political repression.][ Modotti was immediately arrested, but later released and cleared of his murder.][ Shortly thereafter, an attempt was made on the life of the Mexican President ]Pascual Ortiz Rubio
Pascual Ortiz Rubio (; 10 March 1877 – 4 November 1963) was a first Mexican President of Mexico from 1930 to 1932. He was one of three Mexican presidents to serve out the six-year term (1928–1934) of assassinated president-elect Álvaro ...
. Modotti – who was a target of both the Mexican and Italian political police[Hooks, Margaret. ''Tina Modotti, photographer and revolutionary''. London: Pandora, 1993. ] — was questioned about both crimes amidst a concerted anti-communist, anti-immigrant press campaign, that depicted "the fierce and bloody Tina Modotti" as the perpetrator (a Catholic zealot, Daniel Luis Flores, was later charged with shooting Rubio. José Magriñat was arrested for Mella's murder).[
As a result of the anti-communist campaign by the Mexican government, Modotti was exiled from Mexico in 1930.][ She first spent several months in ]Berlin
Berlin is Capital of Germany, the capital and largest city of Germany, both by area and List of cities in Germany by population, by population. Its more than 3.85 million inhabitants make it the European Union's List of cities in the European U ...
, followed by several years in Moscow.[ Traveling on a restricted visa that mandated her final destination as Italy, Modotti initially stopped in Berlin and from there visited Switzerland. The Italian government made concerted efforts to extradite her as a subversive national, but with the assistance of International Red Aid activists, she evaded detention by the fascist police. She apparently intended to make her way into Italy to join the anti-fascist resistance there. In response to the deteriorating political situation in Germany and her own exhausted resources, however, she followed the advice of Vittorio Vidali and moved to Moscow in 1931.][ After 1931, Modotti no longer photographed. Reports of later photographs are unsubstantiated.
During the next few years she engaged in various missions on behalf of the ]Workers International Relief
The Workers International Relief (WIR) — also known as Internationale Arbeiter-Hilfe (IAH) in German and as Международная рабочая помощь (Mezhdunarodny Rabochy Komitet Pomoshchi Golodayushchim Rossii − Mezhrabpom) in R ...
organizations as a Comintern
The Communist International (Comintern), also known as the Third International, was a Soviet Union, Soviet-controlled international organization founded in 1919 that advocated world communism. The Comintern resolved at its Second Congress to ...
agent in Europe. When the Spanish Civil War
The Spanish Civil War ( es, Guerra Civil Española)) or The Revolution ( es, La Revolución, link=no) among Nationalists, the Fourth Carlist War ( es, Cuarta Guerra Carlista, link=no) among Carlism, Carlists, and The Rebellion ( es, La Rebeli ...
erupted in 1936, Vidali (then known as "Comandante Carlos") and Modotti (using the pseudonym "Maria") left Moscow for Spain, where they stayed and worked until 1939. She worked with Canadian Dr. Norman Bethune during the disastrous retreat from Málaga in 1937. In 1939, following the collapse of the Republican movement in Spain, Modotti left Spain with Vidali and returned to Mexico under a pseudonym.[
]
Death
In 1942, at the age of 45, Modotti died from heart failure while on her way home in a taxi from a dinner at Hannes Meyer's home in Mexico City
Mexico City ( es, link=no, Ciudad de México, ; abbr.: CDMX; Nahuatl: ''Altepetl Mexico'') is the capital and largest city of Mexico, and the most populous city in North America. One of the world's alpha cities, it is located in the Valley of ...
, under what are viewed by some as suspicious circumstances.[ After hearing about her death, ]Diego Rivera
Diego María de la Concepción Juan Nepomuceno Estanislao de la Rivera y Barrientos Acosta y Rodríguez, known as Diego Rivera (; December 8, 1886 – November 24, 1957), was a prominent Mexican painter. His large frescoes helped establish the ...
suggested that Vidali had orchestrated it. Modotti may have 'known too much' about Vidali's activities in Spain, which included a rumoured 400 executions. An autopsy showed that she died of natural causes, namely congestive heart failure
Heart failure (HF), also known as congestive heart failure (CHF), is a syndrome, a group of signs and symptoms caused by an impairment of the heart's blood pumping function. Symptoms typically include shortness of breath, excessive fatigue, ...
.[ Her grave is located within the vast ]Panteón de Dolores
The Panteón Civil de Dolores is the largest cemetery in Mexico and contains the "Rotonda de las Personas Ilustres" ( en, Rotunda of Illustrious Persons). It is located on Constituyentes Avenue in the Miguel Hidalgo borough of Mexico City, betwee ...
in Mexico City. Poet Pablo Neruda
Ricardo Eliécer Neftalí Reyes Basoalto (12 July 1904 – 23 September 1973), better known by his pen name and, later, legal name Pablo Neruda (; ), was a Chilean poet-diplomat and politician who won the 1971 Nobel Prize in Literature. Nerud ...
composed Modotti's epitaph, part of which can also be found on her tombstone, which also includes a relief portrait of Modotti by engraver Leopoldo Méndez:
:''Pure your gentle name, pure your fragile life,''
:''bees, shadows, fire, snow, silence and foam,''
:''combined with steel and wire and''
:''pollen to make up your firm''
:''and delicate being.''
Murals by Diego Rivera that include Modotti
*''The Abundant Earth'', The National Agricultural School, Chapingo, 1926
:In 1926, Diego Rivera's wife Lupe Marín asserted that her separation from her husband was caused by his affair with Modotti, which had arisen from Modotti's nude modeling for him for the murals as ''the Abundant Earth'' at the National Agricultural School in Chapingo, near Texcoco 926–27
9 (nine) is the natural number following and preceding .
Evolution of the Arabic digit
In the beginning, various Indians wrote a digit 9 similar in shape to the modern closing question mark without the bottom dot. The Kshatrapa, Andhra and ...
Their affair lasted for about a year and he painted her five times in the Chapingo murals, including as ''The Earth Enslaved'', ''Germination'', and ''Virgin Earth''.
*''In the Arsenal'', Secretaría de Educación Pública Building, Mexico City, 1928
:This painting was part of the break between Modotti and Rivera caused by his expulsion from the Communist Party. The mural depicts Modotti passing out ammunition, perhaps for the revolution of Augusto Sandino in Nicaragua, perhaps for the "invasion" of Cuba that Mella was planning at that time hoping to overthrow the regime of General Gerardo Machado
Gerardo Machado y Morales (28 September 1869 – 29 March 1939) was a general of the Cuban War of Independence and President of Cuba from 1925 to 1933.
Machado entered the presidency with widespread popularity and support from the major polit ...
, or perhaps just in support of insurrection against injustice everywhere. She is shown gazing at her then lover Mella while Vidali peers over her shoulder. Modotti objected to Rivera's use of her private life in such a public manner. She wrote to Weston, "Recently Diego has taken to painting details with an exaggerated precision. He leaves nothing to the imagination." The central figure in this painting is Rivera's then-lover, the artist Frida Kahlo
Magdalena Carmen Frida Kahlo y Calderón (; 6 July 1907 – 13 July 1954) was a Mexican painter known for her many portraits, self-portraits, and works inspired by the nature and artifacts of Mexico. Inspired by Culture of Mexico, the country's ...
. Kahlo, who had first met Rivera as a schoolgirl in 1922 when he was painting his first mural ''The Creation'' in the Bolívar Auditorium of the National Preparatory School
The Escuela Nacional Preparatoria ( en, National Preparatory High School) (ENP), the oldest senior High School system in Mexico, belonging to the National Autonomous University of Mexico (UNAM), opened its doors on February 1, 1868. It was founded ...
in Mexico City, is reputed to have been reintroduced to Rivera in 1928 at a party in Modotti's home, although there are other versions of the tale of their meeting. Modotti hosted Kahlo and Rivera's wedding party on August 21, 1929. The final rift between Modotti on the one hand and Rivera and Kahlo on the other, less than a month later, appears to have been political rather than personal. Modotti supported Rivera's expulsion from the Communist Party. Modotti's internationalism, and her belief that this was best advanced by adherence to the line of the Mexican Communist Party and the Communist International
The Communist International (Comintern), also known as the Third International, was a Soviet-controlled international organization founded in 1919 that advocated world communism. The Comintern resolved at its Second Congress to "struggle by ...
, were deeply held. Later, she explained her decision to abandon photography for political work following her expulsion from Mexico thus (inverting an outlook stated to her years earlier by Edward Weston): "I cannot solve the problem of life by losing myself in the problem of art". Rivera's expulsion started him on a trajectory which was to lead to his later association with Leon Trotsky
Lev Davidovich Bronstein. ( – 21 August 1940), better known as Leon Trotsky; uk, link= no, Лев Давидович Троцький; also transliterated ''Lyev'', ''Trotski'', ''Trotskij'', ''Trockij'' and ''Trotzky''. (), was a Russian M ...
and the Fourth International
The Fourth International (FI) is a Revolutionary socialism, revolutionary socialist international organization consisting of followers of Leon Trotsky, also known as Trotskyism, Trotskyists, whose declared goal is the overthrowing of global ca ...
.
Select photography exhibitions
In 1996 the Philadelphia Museum of Art
The Philadelphia Museum of Art (PMoA) is an art museum originally chartered in 1876 for the Centennial Exposition in Philadelphia. The main museum building was completed in 1928 on Fairmount, a hill located at the northwest end of the Benjamin F ...
organized a large-scale retrospective dedicated to the artist, entitled ''Tina Modotti: Photographs''. Martha Chahroudi, the museum's curator of photography, organized the exhibition. To raise funds for the show, the singer Madonna auctioned her 1963 Mercedes-Benz. Madonna has become a major collector of Modotti's work. In 2006, the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art
The San Francisco Museum of Modern Art (SFMOMA) is a modern and contemporary art museum located in San Francisco, California. A nonprofit organization, SFMOMA holds an internationally recognized collection of modern and contemporary art, and was ...
organized an exhibition entitled ''Mexico as Muse: Tina Modotti and Edward Weston''.
Prior to the presentation of her work in the U.S., Modotti's photographs have been shown in Italy, Poland, Germany, Austria, and other countries. In 2010, the largest exhibition of her work, ''Tina Modotti Photographer and Revolutionary'' opened at the KunstHausWien
The KunstHausWien is a museum in Vienna, designed by the artist Friedensreich Hundertwasser. This museum in the Landstraße district houses the world's only permanent exhibition of Hundertwasser's works, and also hosts regular temporary exhibit ...
in Vienna, Austria. It presented 250 photographs, many never shown before. The exhibition is based on the collections of Galerie Bilderwelt, Berlin and Spencer Throckmorton, NYC and curated by Reinhard Schultz. In 2015 the exhibition ''Tina Modotti: Photographs of Mexican Murals'' was organized at the Richard Norton Gallery.[ The State Museum and Exhibition Center ROSPHOTO in Saint Petersburg, Russia, organized an exhibition of Modotti's work entitled "Tina Modotti. Art. Love. Revolution" from 20 September 2019 to 18 November 2019. In Italy, Palazzo Ducale in Geneva organized the exhibition “Donne, Messico e Libertà” from 8 April 2022 to 9 October 2022.
]
Collections
Modotti's work is held in the following permanent collections:
*Art Institute of Chicago
The Art Institute of Chicago in Chicago's Grant Park, founded in 1879, is one of the oldest and largest art museums in the world. Recognized for its curatorial efforts and popularity among visitors, the museum hosts approximately 1.5 mil ...
, Chicago, IL
*The Museum of Modern Art
The Museum of Modern Art (MoMA) is an art museum located in Midtown Manhattan, New York City, on 53rd Street between Fifth and Sixth Avenues.
It plays a major role in developing and collecting modern art, and is often identified as one of th ...
, New York
* San Francisco Museum of Modern Art
The San Francisco Museum of Modern Art (SFMOMA) is a modern and contemporary art museum located in San Francisco, California. A nonprofit organization, SFMOMA holds an internationally recognized collection of modern and contemporary art, and was ...
, San Francisco, CA
* Metropolitan Museum of Art
The Metropolitan Museum of Art of New York City, colloquially "the Met", is the largest art museum in the Americas. Its permanent collection contains over two million works, divided among 17 curatorial departments. The main building at 100 ...
, New York
* Philadelphia Museum of Art
The Philadelphia Museum of Art (PMoA) is an art museum originally chartered in 1876 for the Centennial Exposition in Philadelphia. The main museum building was completed in 1928 on Fairmount, a hill located at the northwest end of the Benjamin F ...
, Philadelphia, PA
In popular culture
Modotti was portrayed by Ashley Judd
Ashley Judd (born Ashley Tyler Ciminella; April 19, 1968) is an American actress. She grew up in a family of performing artists: she is the daughter of the late country music singer Naomi Judd and the half-sister of country music singer Wynonn ...
in the 2002 film ''Frida
''Frida'' is a 2002 American biographical drama film directed by Julie Taymor which depicts the professional and private life of the surrealist Mexican artist Frida Kahlo.
Starring Salma Hayek in an Academy Award–nominated portrayal as Kahl ...
'', about fellow artist Frida Kahlo
Magdalena Carmen Frida Kahlo y Calderón (; 6 July 1907 – 13 July 1954) was a Mexican painter known for her many portraits, self-portraits, and works inspired by the nature and artifacts of Mexico. Inspired by Culture of Mexico, the country's ...
. 2018 announcement by AG Studios, England to make a TV mini-series titled ''Radical Eye: The Life and Times of Tina Modotti'', creatively helmed by Paula Alvarez Vaccaro and starring Monica Bellucci
Monica Anna Maria Bellucci (; born 30 September 1964) is an Italian actress and model. She began her career as a fashion model, modelling for Dolce & Gabbana and Dior, before making a transition to Italian films and later American and French ...
.[''Radical Eye: The Life and Times of Tina Modotti''](_blank)
IMDB.com, Retrieved September 20, 2018.
Gallery
File:Edward Weston tinamodottimi1921.jpg, Modotti by Weston in 1921
File:Tina Modotti with her arms raised - Edward Weston restoration.jpg, Tina Modotti with arms raised - Edward Weston, c. 1921
File:Jane Reece Have Drowned My Glory in a Shallow Cup (Tina Modotti) 1919.jpg, Tina Modotti by Jane Reece c. 1919
File:Modotti Frau in Tehuantepec.jpg, ''Woman from Tehuantepec'', 1929
Filmography
*''The Tiger's Coat
''The Tiger's Coat'' is a 1920 American silent drama film directed by Roy Clements and starring Lawson Butt, Tina Modotti and Myrtle Stedman.Connelly p.421
Cast
* Lawson Butt as Alexander MacAllistter
* Tina Modotti as Jean Ogilvie / Maria ...
'' (Lubin Studios
The Lubin Manufacturing Company was an American motion picture production company that produced silent films from 1896 to 1916. Lubin films were distributed with a Liberty Bell trademark.
History
The Lubin Manufacturing Company was formed in 1 ...
, 1920)["Tina Modotti"](_blank)
IMDB.com, Retrieved September 1, 2015.
*''Riding With Death'' (Fox Film Corporation
The Fox Film Corporation (also known as Fox Studios) was an American Independent film production studio formed by William Fox (1879–1952) in 1915, by combining his earlier Greater New York Film Rental Company and Box Office Attractions Film C ...
, 1921) as "Tina Medotti"
*''I Can Explain'' ( Pathe Exchange, 1922)[
*''Tina Modotti'' (Channel 4 1992 Documentary) 52 minutes, directed by Ceri Higgins and produced by Helen Kelsey
]
References
Further reading
;Biographies of Modotti:
*Albers, Patricia, ''Shadows, Fire, Snow – The Life of Tina Modotti'', Clarkson Potter, 1999.
*Argenteri, Letizia.''Tina Modotti: Between Art & Revolution'', New Haven: Yale University Press, 2003.
*Cacucci, Pino, ''Tina Modotti; A Life'', New York, NY: St. Martin's Press, 1999.
*Constantine, Mildred, ''Tina Modotti – A Fragile Life'', Chronicle Books, 1993.
*Hooks, Margaret,''Tina Modotti, Photographer and Revolutionary'', London: Harper Collins, 1993.
*Hooks, Margaret,''Tina Modotti, Master of Photography'', NY: Aperture, 1999. .
*Hooks, Margaret,''Tina Modotti'', London: Phaidon Press, 2006. .
*Lowe, Sarah, ''Tina Modotti; Photographs'', NY: Harry Abrams, Inc., Publishers, 1995.
*Noble, Andrea,''Tina Modotti: Image, Texture, Photography'', Albuquerque: University of New Mexico Press, 2000.
*Poniatowska, Elena,''Tinísima'', Mexico: Ediciones Era, 1996.
*Stourdze, Sam (ed.), Patricia Albers, Karen Cordero Reiman, ''Tina Modotti and the Mexican Renaissance'', Paris: Jean Michel Place Editions, 2000.
;Other:
*Brenner, Anita,'' Idols Behind Altars – Modern Mexican Art and Its Cultural Roots,'' NY: Dover Publications Inc. Mineola, 2002 eprinted from 1929 editionphotographs by Modotti and Weston. (pbk.)
*Herrera, Hayden, ''Frida – A Biography of Frida Kahlo,'' New York, NY: Harper Colophon Books, 1983.
*Marnham, Patrick, ''Dreaming With His Eyes Open – A Life of Diego Rivera'', Berkeley, CA: University of California Press, 2000. (refers to 1998 edition)
*Miller, Throckmorton, et al. ''Tina Modotti – Photographs'', NY, NY: Robert Miller Gallery, 1997.
*Naggar & Ritchin, ''Mexico Through Foreign Eyes – Visto por ojos extranjeros 1850 – 1990'', NY, NY: WW Norton and Co., 1993.
*Rochfort, Desmond, ''Mexican Muralists'', San Francisco: Chronicle Books, 1998.
*Warren, Beth Gates, ''Margrethe Mather & Edward Weston – A Passionate Collaboration'', NY, NY: WW Norton & Co., 2001.
*Wolfe, Bertram D. ''The Fabulous Life of Diego Rivera'', NY, NY: Stein & Day Publishers, 1963. k. ed.
External links
Tina Modotti in the collection of The Museum of Modern Art
Tina Modotti's ballad and video
Sheroes of History; Tina Modotti
*
Tina Modotti Books
2010 Kunst Haus Wien Exhibit
{{DEFAULTSORT:Modotti, Tina
Italian photographers
20th-century Italian women politicians
1896 births
1942 deaths
Mexican women artists
Italian women photographers
People from Udine
Italian people of the Spanish Civil War
Mexican communists
Mexican people of Italian descent
Mexican photographers
People of Friulian descent
Mexican artists' models
Italian emigrants to the United States
Women in the Spanish Civil War
Italian silent film actresses
20th-century Italian actresses
20th-century photographers
20th-century women photographers