Word: bravoed
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Diego Rivera thus paid tribute in 1945 to the Mexican photographer Manuel Alvarez Bravo, an artist who remains little-known in this country after an illustrious career spanning more than 50 years. The Sackler's exhibition of Bravo's work, titled Revelaciones, offers a fine introduction to his achievement...
...photos, drawn from all stages of Bravo's career, convey a sense of the precision Rivera praised. Bravos most striking characteristic is a crystalline, sometimes stark vision of his country's landscape and people. Light and shadow appear as palpable entities in these photos. Bravo's clearsightedness proves especially valuable in portraying the reality of Mexico, a nation so steeped in stereotype for Americans. His uncompromising view drains these images of any sentimentality or quaintness. At their best, these scenes of everyday Mexican life and death appear iconic and timeless...
Revelaciones showcases some of Bravo's most consistent and fascinating concerns. His art is one of contrasts and striking visual juxtapositions. Careful observation of light and shadow corresponds to his interest in the differences between life and death, real and not real, Old World...
...While Bravo's contemporaries, especially the Surrealists, experimented with many of the same innovations, Bravo's position as a Mexican artist adds another dimension to his work. As a citizen of a nation characterized by profound cultural exchange between Indian and European, Bravo works in at least two visual frames of reference...
...commentary accompanying the exhibition concentrates entirely on the pre-Columbian influences on Bravo's igonography. While this focus is valuable to the modern-day American viewer, it also constitutes the show's only weakness, denying some of the power of Bravo's work by excluding its contemporary significance...