Bowdoin College Museum of Art | - Gorrión, Claro (Skylight)

Preview image of work. gelatin silver print, Gorrión, Claro (Skylight) 9108

1979.81.13

Recommend keywords

Help us make our collections more accessible by providing keywords to describe this artwork. The BCMA uses the Getty Art & Architecture Thesaurus to provide consistent keywords. Enter a keyword in the field below and you will be prompted with a list of possible matching AAT preferred terms.

Gorrión, Claro (Skylight)

Export record as: Plain text | JSON | CDWA-Lite | VRA Core 4

Artist

Manuel Álvarez Bravo (Mexico City, Mexico, 2/4/1902 - 10/19/2002, Mexico City, Mexico)

Title

Gorrión, Claro (Skylight)

Creation Date

1938-1940

Century

20th century

Dimensions

7 1/4 in. x 9 1/2 in. (18.4 cm. x 24.1 cm.)

Classification

Photographs

Creation Place

North America, Mexico

Medium and Support

gelatin silver print

Credit Line

Gift of Michael G. Frieze, Class of 1960

Copyright

This artwork may be under copyright. For further information, please consult the Museum’s Copyright Terms and Conditions.

Accession Number

1979.81.13

This photograph depicts a nude woman lying on top of a cracked and patched-over skylight. With her limbs haphazardly arranged, she appears unaware of the camera. Manuel Alvarez Bravo’s work rejects the picturesque in favor of more metaphorical, even surrealist photographs that reflect the tension between Mexico’s traditional values and modern manners. The title, Gorrión (sparrow), suggests the fragility of the woman whose weight rests on a broken surface. By comparing the woman to a sparrow, Alvarez implies that the presence of both modern social practices and traditional values in Mexican society is a delicate coexistence. Clare Murphy ’20 “Es bien curioso: cuando te pienso en tus manos, en tu boca, tus pechos, tus piernas: en alguna parte de ti. No es hasta que te veo de nuevo que todo se reúne en una persona específica, que respira y piensa y está viva . . . . Eso me da pavor, saber que aparte de mí, existes.” “It’s very curious: when I think of your hands, your mouth, your breasts, your legs: of some part of you. It is not until I see you again that everything unites into a specific person, who breathes and thinks and is alive . . . . That I dread, knowing that apart from me, you exist.” Sabina Berman Entre Pancho Villa y una mujer desnuda (1996)