Frida Kahlo
A striking gelatin silver print by Manuel Álvarez Bravo capturing the iconic Mexican painter Frida Kahlo, whose commanding presence and distinctive features are rendered with quiet intensity in black and white. Álvarez Bravo, one of Mexico's most celebrated photographers, brings his signature poetic sensibility to this portrait, highlighting Kahlo's dignified bearing and enigmatic gaze. The later print preserves the luminous tonal range characteristic of the gelatin silver process, ensuring the enduring legacy of this intimate encounter between two giants of Mexican art.
- Medium
- Gelatin silver print, printed later.
- Location
- Phillips, Salt Lake City, UT
- Spotted At
- Auction House · PhillipsView on map
🔨 Auction Lot
ULTIMATE Evening & Photographs Day Sales
May 18, 2018
More by Manuel Álvarez Bravo
Artists in conversation
Tina Modotti
Italian-Mexican · b. 1896
Modotti worked in Mexico during the same modernist era as Álvarez Bravo, producing gelatin silver portraits with similar poetic intimacy and psychological depth. Her black and white photography shares the same dignified, quietly intense rendering of Mexican cultural figures and subjects.
Edward Weston
American · b. 1886
Weston collaborated closely with the Mexican modernist photography circle and produced luminous gelatin silver portraits with the same commanding tonal range and quiet intensity seen in this Kahlo portrait. His approach to capturing subjects with enigmatic stillness and modernist sensibility directly parallels Álvarez Bravo's technique here.
Imogen Cunningham
American · b. 1883
Cunningham created intimate black and white gelatin silver portraits of cultural icons and artists with a similar modernist sensibility and psychological presence. Her portraits share the same luminous tonal qualities and dignified, penetrating gaze that defines this Kahlo photograph.
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