Mexico's Visual Culture: A Century of Photography on Display

The Getty Center in Los Angeles is currently hosting an exhibition titled 'Instante/revelación: Moments in Mexican Photography,' which showcases the work of 13 Mexican photographers from the late 1920s to the mid-2010s. The exhibition traces the evolution of Mexican photography from post-Revolution nation-building to contemporary life.

Among the featured artists are Lola Álvarez Bravo and Graciela Iturbide. Álvarez Bravo's work, such as 'Tríptico de los martirios' (1950), is noted for its anonymous subject and exquisite timing, capturing a tree's shadow crawling toward the subject's bare chest. Iturbide's 'Mujer ángel' (1979) depicts a woman in a veil and long white skirt traversing a field of flowers to encounter a spotty desert, showcasing a keen attention to light and form.

The exhibition is named after a book by the late Nobel Prize-winning Mexican writer Octavio Paz, 'Instante y revelación' (Instant and Revelation, 1982). The book pairs Paz's poetry with photographs by Manuel Álvarez Bravo, whose work he encountered in the Mexican literary magazine Contemporáneos (Contemporaries). This relationship between language and visual art informs the exhibition's framework, allowing for poetic groupings.

In addition to the photographic works, the exhibition includes artists and intellectuals such as Frida Kahlo, Diego Rivera, and David Alfaro Siqueiros, alongside landscapes, botanical species, and scenes from everyday life.

The exhibition runs until August 2024.