Lot #1108: MANUEL ALVAREZ BRAVO - Los Obstaculos - Original photogravure

 

Artist: Manuel Alvarez Bravo (Mexican, 1902 - 2002).
Title: "Los Obstaculos".
Medium: Original photogravure.
Date: Composed 1929. Printed later.
Dimensions: Overall size: 7 x 8 3/8 in. (178 x 213 mm).
Lot Note(s): Stamped with the photographer's name, verso. Edition size unspecified, presumed small. High-grade archival paper. Wide margins. Fine, quality printing. Very good to fine condition; affixed to very thin and supple archival acid-free support sheet, not mount/board. Literature/catalogue raisonne: Corcoran Gallery of Art, Álvarez Bravo, pl. 18; Turner Publications, Manuel Álvarez Bravo: 100 years, 100 days, pl. 10; Urbajtel, Manuel Álvarez Bravo: Photopoetry, p. 43. Provenance: Private collection, San Miguel de Allende, Guanajuato, Mexico. Comment(s): According to “Gordon’s Photography Prices” the auction record for a silver print of this image is $50,000 realized at Phillips, New York, 4/4/2017, lot #244. “One of Bravo's most important images, this surreal photograph of wrapped carousel horses, with its enigmatic title, was taken a few years after the end of the armed struggle that had consumed Mexico for a decade and which had upended the social and political norms. Its imagery likely has overtones of that upheaval.” Image copyright © Colette Urbajtel / Archivo Manuel Alvarez Bravo, SC. [29767-2-600]