Last week I stumbled onto the news that there were two shows about to be wrapped up at the International Center for Photography in New York. Graciela Iturbide: Serious Play and Sergio Larrain: Wanderings.
Needless to say I jumped at the chance to see this great doubleheader, but I had to rejigger my work schedule and figure out the best day to travel in order to avoid the wind and cold rain the Northeast has been having. That way I could take a nice leisurely walk instead of riding the subway from Penn Station.
I had seen some of Graciela Iturbide’s work before and previously wrote about it here. I also had purchased her book Graciela Iturbide’s Mexico and was given a very beautiful signed small book eponymously titled Graciela Iturbidepublished the Throckmorton Fine Art Gallery. I had never seen Sergio Larrain’s work in the flesh but own one of his books, Sergio Larrain.
The Iturbide exhibit was the first retrospective of her work in New York City and included portraits and documentary work of the Seri people and other indigenous Mexican cultures and their traditions, pictures of the Oazaca Botanical Gardens, landscapes and found objects, self-portraits and perhaps most interestingly pictures made in the artist Frida Kahalo’s home bathroom that was turned into a museum.
The Larrain exhibit was drawn from Magnum Photo archives and focused on the early part of his carrier; mainly portraits of children and others, as well as street and rural scenes made during the 1950s and 1960s in Santiago, Valparaíso, Santiago, Paris, London, Peru, Bolivia, Italy and Chiloe Island.
The beautiful black and white images from both exhibits range in size mostly from 8X10 to 16X20. But to me they appeared to be on the dark and moody side. Was this an artistic decision, a lighting issue or me? Not sure. Nevertheless, this didn’t distract from the magnitude of this dual show.
What did make me feel a little bit off was viewing the important work of two incredibly talented artists at a time when the regime is trying to take over a Latin American country for all the wrong reasons, while horribly mistreating Latin Americans in our own country … just part of a long history of our looking down at Latin American peoples, their cultures, their talents and their countries of origin.
Unfortunately both of these wonderful shows end today, so unless you live nearby or are in the area and can get there fast you’re out of luck. But not completely … turns out there’s another Iturbide exhibit in New York at the Throckmorton Fine Art Gallery which runs through February 28th! In any case, I urge you to see their work when the opportunity comes up. Otherwise, think about picking up one of their outstanding monographs. They’ll make a fine addition to your library!
Stay well,
Michael