Manuel Álvarez Bravo´s retrospective at Foundation MAPFRE, Spain

Taken over the course of eight decades, Manuel Álvarez Bravo's photographs offer a vital insight into 20th-century Mexico. Beyond their associations with the folk culture of an exotic land, the political rhetoric of muralism and Surrealist aesthetics, his fascinating and complex images are a reflection of the sweeping changes ushered in by the Mexican Revolution of 1910: the progressive abandonment of rural life and traditional customs, the rise of a post-revolutionary culture with international influences, and the adoption of a modern culture that revolved around the whirlwind of the big city.

This exhibition examines Álvarez Bravo's work from a different perspective. In addition to the iconic photographs for which he is renowned, the show includes experimental images from his archive that have never previously been exhibited: colour and Polaroid negatives, and experimental film footage from the 1960s. The selection sheds light on little-known yet crucial aspects of his photography, such as the iconographic motifs that appear time and time again in his images, revealing a structure and intent far removed from the randomness of Mexican "marvellous reality."

Objects as signs, words as images, reflections as things: resembling nothing so much as graphic poems, the photographs taken over eight decades by Manuel Álvarez Bravo (Mexico City, 1902-2002) have established him as one of the founding fathers of modern photography.

The show is organized around eight themes, and features 152 photographs that attest to the tenacity and coherence of Álvarez Bravo's creative development. These are accompanied by five experimental films (in 8mm and Super 8), never previously screened in public, which offer examples of his work in this genre and illustrate his relationship with cinematography over more than 50 years. Finally, the exhibition also includes documents such as his notebooks, work sheets and correspondence with prominent figures such as Henri Cartier-Bresson, Alfred Stieglitz and Edward Steichen.

Álvarez Bravo’s imagery, at once disconcerting and poetic, is a Mexican contribution to the language of modern photography. His work proves that modern art, far from being a single centralized praxis, is a multiple construction arising from a wide variety of standpoints, poetics and cultural contexts.