Tina Modotti

A Tina Modotti photograph of a Diego Rivera Mural

1920s

An original 1920s silver gelatin print by photographer Tina Modotti, showing a Diego Rivera fresco in the Secretariat of Education in Mexico City, Mexico. Photo is stamped “Photogra...

An original 1920s silver gelatin print by photographer Tina Modotti, showing a detail of an image of St. Francis in a fresco in a prep school in Mexico City by Clemente Orozco. Ar...

An original 1920s silver gelatin print by photographer Tina Modotti, showing a fresco in the Secretariat of Education in Mexico City by artist Diego Rivera. Photo is stamped “Photog...

Original gelatin silver print by Photographer Tina Modotti. Stamped “Photographs-Tina Modotti Mexico, D.F.” on reverse. Archivally matted to 16” x 20”. The Patio in the Public Edu...

An original 1920s silver gelatin print by photographer Tina Modotti, showing a fresco by artist Diego Rivera. Photo is stamped “Photographs-Tina Modotti Mexico, D.F.” on reverse. A...

An original 1920s silver gelatin print by photographer Tina Modotti, showing a fresco in the Agricultural School-Chapingo, Mexico by artist Diego Rivera. Photo is stamped “Photographs-Tina Modotti Mexico, D.F.” on reverse. Archivally matted to 16” x 20” Tina Modotti was born in Udine, Italy in 1896 and by the age of 14 she was supporting her entire family by working in a local silk factory. Modotti’s father emigrated to San Francisco, sending for his family in 1913. Modotti was hired in the sewing room at the I. Magnin department store, but her great beauty attracted the attention of her superiors who then employed her to model the store’s fashions. In 1915, Modotti attended San Francisco’s Pan-Pacific Exposition, where she got her first look at Modern art and photography. She also met her first husband at the Exposition, painter and poet Roubaix de l’Abrie Richey. At this time Modotti began acting in local Italian theatre and was discovered by a talent scout for the new silent film industry in Hollywood. She arrived in Los Angeles in 1918 and was cast in “The Tiger’s Coat” and “I Can Explain”. Through her Hollywood connections, Modotti met the married photographer Edward Weston, with whom she began an affair. Modotti was a favorite subject of Weston’s photographs, but moreover he taught her the art of photography. She actually ran Weston’s studio in exchange for photography lessons. Due to the on-going affair between Modotti and Weston, Modotti’s husband moved to Mexico where he died of smallpox. This tragedy and the death of her father made Modotti dissatisfied with Hollywood. Modotti and Weston arrived in Mexico in 1923 at a time when the country was in the midst of a social, political and cultural revolution. She photographed the Mexican...

Pictorialist photograph of a young woman. Silver print in the original oak frame. Inscribed on reverse R.S. Paddock, Early 20th century. Pictorialism is the name given to an interna...

Vintage photograph of an unknown abstract sculptor. In metal frame.

George Platt Lynes 1950 Photograph #1 of Balanchine Ballet ‘Orpheus’. George Platt Lynes rare original vintage 1950 silver gelatin photograph of nude dancers Francisco Moncion and Nicholas Magallanes in George Balanchine's iconic mid-20th Century ballet Orpheus. Stamped on verso in dark blue ink at upper center, "GEORGE PLATT LYNES/145 EAST 52 STREET NEW YORK”. Photo shoot took place in NYC on March 21, 1950. Costumes and Set by ISAMU NAGUCHI. Photo is 7 5/8 x 9 1/4 inches, soft satin finish in excellent condition. This photograph is one from a collection of 14 different poses in this series of nude photographs of Moncion and Magallanes in Orpheus by Platt Lynes. Complete collection is available on request. Photographs from this celebrated series are in the 20th Century collections of the Metropolitan Museum of Art (NYC), Museum of Modern Art (MOMA, NYC), and the Columbus Museum. George Platt Lynes (1907–1955), was a gregarious American portrait, dance, fashion, and male nude photographer whose career spanned the late 1920s through the early 1950s. From age eighteen, Lynes entered the cosmopolitan world of the American expatriate community in Paris when he became acquainted with the salon of Gertrude Stein and Alice B. Toklas. He began photographing authors like Stein, Jean Cocteau, André Gide, and Colette and soon established himself as one of the premier fashion photographers in the Condé Nast stable, documenting the ballet companies of George Balanchine/Lincoln Kirstein, and pursuing a private obsession with seductive images of young male nudes rarely published in his lifetime. Orpheus represents a major 20th Century artistic collaboration between composer Igor Stravinsky, choreographer George Ballanchine, and artist/designer Isamu Naguchi. Orpheus is a thirty-minute neoclassical ballet composed by Igor Stravinsky in collaboration with choreographer George Balanchine in Hollywood, California in 1947. The work was commissioned by Ballet Society, later renamed New York City Ballet, which Balanchine founded with Lincoln Kirstein. Sets and costumes were created by Isamu Noguchi. Noguchi’s lyre harp from the production became the symbol of the New York City Ballet. Francisco Moncion (July 6, 1918 – April 1, 1995) was a charter member of the New York City Ballet. Over the course of his forty year career, choreographers George Balanchine, and Jerome Robbins in the New York City Ballet created 22 major roles for Moncion including the Dark Angel...

An original silver gelatin black and white photograph with framing. New York City by night, circa 1950. Features: Original Silver Gelatin Print Photography framed. Press Photography....

An original silver gelatin black and white photograph by Press Agency New York Times office in Paris (Wide World Photos.) Sled race in Central Park, New York, 1934. Features: Original silver gelatin print photography framed. Press Agency New York Times Office in Paris - Wide Wolrd Photos. Photographer: unknown. Title: Sled Race in Central Park, 1934. Provenance: Private collection. Frame Size: 20.63 in high (52.5 cm) x 16.75 in wide (42.5 cm) x 1.57 in deep (4 cm). Image Size: 5.51 in high (14.2 cm) x 7.48 in wide (19.8 cm). French typed legend, copyright credit, and ink stamp at the back that read: "Course de traineaux dans un parc a New York. Sur la neige qui recouvre les allées du Central Park Casino a new York, un groupe d'artistes a eu l'idée d'organiser une course de traineaux - voici une vue de la course - Photos NYT - NY 5/1/34 - SP." (Sled race in a New York park. On the snow covering the paths of the Central Park Casino in New York, a group of artists had the idea of ​​​​organizing a sled race - here is a view of the race - Photos NYT - NY 5/ 1 /34 - SP.) Note: The Central Park Casino, originally the Ladies' Refreshment Salon, was a restaurant in Central Park, near East 72nd Street in Manhattan, New York City. The name of the building came from the Italian for "little house," but the Casino itself was never a gambling business. Originally, Calvert Vaux designed the building in 1862 as part of the Greensward Plan for Central Park. The original plan was a wooden chalet-style structure with a broad hip roof. Before construction began, however, Vaux decided that a more permanent building was needed. The following year, with the assistance of Edward C. Miller and Jacob Wrey Mould, the Casino was redesigned as a Gothic Revival stone structure. The building opened in early 1864 as a restaurant planned for unaccompanied female visitors to Central Park and was one of Central Park's three original restaurants. Soon, it was patronized by both men and women. The building that housed the Casino belonged to the City of New York, and the City often leased the Casino to independent operators. In the early 1920s, the Casino was rundown and renovated during the winter of 1921–1922. Jimmy Walker, mayor of New York City during the late 1920s, frequented the Casino and reportedly spent more time there than in New York City Hall. Besides entertaining elite guests in the restaurant, Walker had an office in the Casino and conducted city administration there while meeting with political cronies. In 1929, Walker terminated the lease of C.F. Zittel and allowed a friend, Sidney Solomon, to transform the Casino into one of New York's most expensive nightclubs. In February 1929, they released the new project. Solomon changed the Casino's interior using a design from Viennese designer Joseph Urban, though he kept the exterior mostly the same. The renovated Casino reopened on June 4, 1929. When the Great Depression hit four months after the Casino reopened, the nightclub faced increasing criticism for operating on city land while maintaining prices only the wealthiest New York residents could afford. In 1930, as part of the enforcement of Prohibition, the United States government raided the Casino and seized alcoholic beverages. Walker's successor, Fiorello H. La Guardia, and his parks commissioner Robert Moses, who held a vendetta against Walker, wanted to tear down the Casino to build a playground on the site. In 1934, Moses served an eviction order on the Casino's management. When the Parks Association of New York City objected...

An original silver gelatin black and white photograph by Associated Press Photo. The USS Roosevelt aircraft carriers on the Hudson River, New York, during Navy Day...