Graciela Iturbide
dal 22/4/2005 al 18/6/2005
Segnalato da
22/4/2005
Graciela Iturbide
RoseGallery, Santa Monica
For three decades the artist has dwelled on the borders of indigenous experience and bourgeoning modernity in her native country of Mexico. Engaged in the ongoing pageantry of pre-Hispanic & Catholic religious rites as they intertwine with everyday enterprise, Iturbide's immersion in the lives of her subjects has engendered an unparalleled documentation of rural Mexico.
Solo show
For three decades Graciela Iturbide has dwelled on the borders of indigenous experience and bourgeoning modernity in her native country of Mexico. Engaged in the ongoing pageantry of pre-Hispanic & Catholic religious rites as they intertwine with everyday enterprise, Iturbide’s immersion in the lives of her subjects has engendered an unparalleled documentation of rural Mexico, its enduring mythology, and its indomitable personalities.
A photographer for whom the human subject is often at the crux of her own self-discovery, Graciela Iturbide has recently relinquished her usual preoccupation with the indigenous people of her country in order to confront the solitary natural environment. A selection of images taken in the Botanical Gardens of Oaxaca and at Santa Gertrudis, South Texas reveal a portion of Iturbide’s artistic compulsion rarely evoked in her previous work. Among the photographs included in RoseGallery’s forthcoming exhibition are intimations of a journey into seclusion. Exquisite renderings of the earth and its delicate manifestations are seeped in solemnity and thoughtful recognition; ever-changing nature is made timeless through Iturbide’s act of choosing.
Intrinsic to this selection process is Iturbide’s enduring devotion to the space of transition. Along the Texas, Mexican border she discovers sites of unique sculptural elegance, where once-vivid wildlife is devoured by uncompromising desert sands. In the Botanical Gardens of Oaxaca, her sharp eye focuses again on life’s transformations, as plant specimens are delivered from their natural habitats into human care.
Born in Mexico City in 1942, Graciela Iturbide began studying filmmaking at the Centro Universitario de Estudios Cinematográficios in the late 1960’s. In the 1970’s she studied and became enamored of photography under the tutelage of Manuel Alvarez Bravo. In the same decade she became a founding member of the Mexican Council of Photography, and began work on her provocative Juchitán project for which she was given the W. Eugene Smith award in 1987. Also the recipient of a Guggenheim Foundation Grant, Iturbide’s work has been the subject of numerous monographs including Pajaros, (2002), Images of the Spirit, (1996), and the upcoming release from Steidl. Her work is included in private and public collections, including those at SFMOMA, The Museum of Fine Arts in Houston, the Musée d’Art Moderne Centre Georges Pompidou in Paris, and the J. Paul Getty Museum. Graciela Iturbide lives in Coyoacán, Mexico.
RoseGallery
2525 Michigan Ave., G-5 (Bergamot Station) - Santa Monica, CA
Hours: Tuesday – Saturday, 10am-6pm