Tina Modotti. Photographer and Revolutionary

In the exhibition "TINA MODOTTI – Photographer and Revolutionary", KUNST HAUS WIEN presents a comprehensive retrospective of a legendary photographer who has still not received the attention she deserves. Tina Modotti, who was born in 1896 in Udine, Italy and died in 1942 in Mexico, was one of the most fascinating women of the 20th century. She became famous as a result of the photographs she created in Mexico in the 1920s and her involvement in the revolutionary movements of her time.

The exhibition traces the path of Tina Modotti's life, which took her from Italy to California, Mexico, Berlin, Moscow, Paris, Spain and back to Mexico, and acquaints us with the people who were important to her, among them the photographers Edward Weston and Johan Hagemeyer, the author B. Traven and the artists Diego Rivera and Frida Kahlo. It also presents other photographers' impressions of Modotti, who had started out as an actress in silent films, among them one of the most highly priced nude photographs in the history of photography, the image "The White Iris", made by Edward Weston in 1921.

Starting from a reminiscence of the reknowned exhibition of Tina Modotti's photographic works that was presented in December 1929 at the National Library in Mexico City, the exhibition offers an overview of all important areas of her creations as a photographer.
This retrospective of her photographic works includes her portraits, her studies of plant, her famous series on the "Women of Tehuantepec", her images of the revolutionary movements of the 1920s and her photographs of puppeteers as well as little-known, rare material such as her studies of the murals of Diego Rivera.