Tina Modotti
Tina Modotti was born Assunta Adelaide Luigia Modotti Mondini in 1896. At the age of 16, she moved from her native Italy to the United States with her father. Modotti soon developed an interest in performing arts and appeared in several plays, operas and silent movies while living in San Francisco. Five years later, she moved to Los Angeles to pursue a career in film. Modotti became known for playing the femme fatale and in 1920 landed the staring role in The Tiger\u2019s Coat.\n\n\t\t\t\t\tTina showed an interest in photography from an early age. Her uncle Pietro Modotti ran a photography studio in Italy and later her father ran a similar studio in San Fransisco. After moving to Los Angeles with her boyfriend Robo Richey, Tina soon became friends with Edward Weston. Weston became a mentor and inspiration for Modotti\u2019s development as a fine art photographer an by 1921 she was modeling for Weston and the two soon began an affair.\n\n\t\t\t\t\tModotti\u2019s boyfriend, Robo went to Mexico in December of 1921. Unaware of Tina\u2019s affair with Weston, he took a portfolio of Weston\u2019s work hoping to work out an exhibition in Mexico. While Tina was on her way to Mexico to join him, she found that he had died 2 days before her arrival of smallpox. The following year, Tina mounted a two week exhibition of Robo\u2019s and Weston\u2019s work at the National Academy of Fine Arts in Mexico City.\n\n\t\t\t\t\tWeston moved to Mexico the following year leaving behind his wife and 3 of 4 children. Tina set up and managed Edward\u2019s studio in return for his mentoring her as a photographer.\n\n\t\t\t\t\tWeston was taken by Mexican culture and was inspired by local folk art and landscape. Modotti was more interested in people and the Modernest aesthetic. She soon found a community of cultural and political avant-gardists who she became closely associated with including Frida Kahlo and Diego Rivera.\n\n\t\t\t\t\tAs her photography skills began to mature, Modotti\u2019s work included lyrical images of peasants and workers and experiments with architectural interiors, flowers and urban landscapes. Mexican photographer Manuel Alvarez Bravo notes 2 distinctions in Modotti\u2019s work being both \u201cromantic\u201d and \u201crevolutionary\u201d. The romantic aspects of her work undoubtedly influenced by Weston and the revolutionary from her growing interest in politics.\n\n\t\t\t\t\tIn 1926, Weston signed a contract with writer Anita Brenner to photograph her book on Mexican folk art. Modotti and Weston were joined by Edward\u2019s son Brett. The job was quite large requiring over 400 8\xd710 negatives and prints. Brett was brought up to speed at a breakneck pace and learned how to make prints while traveling through Mexico in search of lesser known native art. The project took months and by the end, Edward\u2019s relationship with Tina was over. At the end of the project, Edward and Brett returned permanently to California.\n\n\t\t\t\t\tModotti continued her works as a photographer and in 1929 did her first one-woman retrospective exhibition at the National Library which was advertised as the \u201cFirst Revolutionary Photographic Exhibition In Mexico\u201d. By this time, Tina had been a member of the Mexican Communist Party for several years and her work was very politically focused. In 1929, Modotti\u2019s close friend Julio Antonia Mella was assassinated presumably by agents of the Cuban government. Soon there was an assassination attempt on Mexican President Pascual Ortiz Rubio and Modotti was questioned about both crimes. In 1930, she was expelled from Mexico as the result of an anti-communist and anti-imagrant press campaign. Modotti evaded police through Rotterdam, Berlin and Switzerland before making her way back to Italy to join the anti-fascist resistance before proceeding to Moscow in 1931. After this move to Russia no photographs survive and it is presumed that Moditti never photographed again.\n\n\t\t\t\t\tDuring the rise of the Spanish Civil War, Modotti left Moscow for Spain. Following the collapse of the Republican movement, she returned to Mexico under a false identity.\n\n\t\t\t\t\tTwo years later, Modotti died under somewhat suspicious circumstances though the official autopsy indicated heart failure. She was 46.\n\t\t\t\t\tine art photographer an by 1921 she was modeling for Weston and the two soon began an affair.\n\n\t\t\t\t\tMoMA Collection :: http://www.moma.org/collection/artist.php?artist_id=4039\n\t\t\t\t\tPhiladelphia Museum of Art Collections :: http://www.philamuseum.org/collections/results.html?searchTxt=modotti&keySearch=+Search+&searchNameID=&searchClassID=&searchOrigin=&searchDeptID=&accessionID=&page=1