Lot 28

Throckmorton Fine Art, New York
Private collection, Melbourne

Capturing Time: A Celebration of Photographs, J. Paul Getty Museum at the Getty Center, Los Angeles, 1 December 1997 - 1 March 1998 (another example)
World Without End, Art Gallery of New South Wales, Sydney, 1 December 2000 - 21 February 2001 (another example)
Manuel Álvarez Bravo: Optical Parables, J. Paul Getty Museum at the Getty Center, Los Angeles, 13 November 2001 - 17 February 2002 (then touring) (another example)
The Human Form Divine: The Body as Seen by the Camera, Art Institute of Chicago, Chicago, 8 February – 1 June 2003 (another example)

Sheehan, T., Grove Art Guide to Photography, Oxford University Press, United Kingdom, 2017, p. 71 (illus., another example)

Other examples of this print are held in the collections of the Art Institute of Chicago, Chicago; Yale University Art Gallery, Connecticut; and Museum of Modern Art, New York.

Mexican artistic photographer, Manuel Álvarez Bravo, was an influential figure in 20th century Latin American art. Victor Blasco, a prominent curator of photography, recounts Álvarez Bravo's connection to the surrealism movement whilst speaking specifically to his notable photographic work, La Buena Fama Durmiendo (Good Reputation Sleeping). According to Blasco, in 1939, while waiting for his pay check at the academy, Álvarez Bravo received a call from someone representing the French poet and writer André Breton. They were requesting a photograph for the cover of the International Surrealist Exhibition catalogue, which was scheduled to be published in January 1940. Álvarez Bravo, prompted by a strange instinct, contacted his friend Dr. Francisco Arturo Marin, and requested bandages for his model. The doctor, believing there had been an accident, rushed to the scene. Meanwhile, Álvarez Bravo directed Alicia, one of his models, to ascend to the roof, while a porter was dispatched to locate a cactus at a neighbouring market. After assembling all the components on the roof in the midday heat, Álvarez Bravo composed the backdrop for one of his most famous photographs.

Hannah Ryan
Prints & Multiples Specialist