id:			165397
accession number:	2007.25
share license status:	Copyrighted
url:			https://clevelandart.org/art/2007.25
updated:		2025-02-09 06:16:33.643000

The Balloon Seller, 1947. Manuel Álvarez Bravo (Mexican, 1902–2002). Gelatin silver print; overall: 16.3 x 11 cm (6 7/16 x 4 5/16 in.); mounted: 19.3 x 14 cm (7 5/8 x 5 1/2 in.). The Cleveland Museum of Art, John L. Severance Fund 2007.25 © Colette Urbajtel/ Archivo Manuel Álvarez Bravo, S.C

title:				The Balloon Seller
title in original language:	
series:				
series in original language:	
creation date:			1947
creation date earliest:		1947
creation date latest:		1947
current location:		
creditline:			John L. Severance Fund
copyright:			© Colette Urbajtel/ Archivo Manuel Álvarez Bravo, S.C

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culture:	Mexico, 20th century
technique:	gelatin silver print
department:	Photography
collection:	PH - Mexican
type:		Photograph
find spot:	
catalogue raisonne: 

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CREATORS

* Manuel Álvarez Bravo (Mexican, 1902–2002)  - artist
Manuel Alvarez Bravo Mexican, 1902-2002

Born in Mexico City, Manuel Alvarez Bravo has achieved international fame as one of Mexico's most talented photographers. In 1918 he studied painting and music at the Academia Nacional de Bellas Artes. After taking up the camera in 1924, Alvarez Bravo was encouraged by photographers Hugo Brehme and Edward Weston to pursue a career in the medium. Over the next several years he worked as a government employee, a photography instructor, and a photographer for the magazine Mexican Folkways. In 1931 he became a freelancer specializing in the reproduction of paintings and other works of art. A variety of jobs followed, including that of photographer and cameraman at the Sindicato de Trabajadores de la Producción Cinematográfica de México (1943-59). He also served as cofounder, director, and chief photographer for El Fondo Editorial de la Plástica Mexicana, a publisher of fine art books (1959-80).
	Alvarez Bravo has been awarded the National Arts Prize of Mexico (1975), named an honorary member of the Mexican Academy of Arts (1980), made an Officier des Arts et Lettres in France (1981), and received the Hasselblad Prize (1984). He has had numerous individual exhibitions at venues throughout the world, including the Palacio Nacional de Bellas Artes, Mexico City (1934, 1968, 1972), the Art Institute of Chicago (1943, 1974), the Museum of Photographic Arts, San Diego (1990), and the J. Paul Getty Museum, Malibu (1992).
	Alvarez Bravo's personal work is deeply rooted in Mexican culture, as were the paintings of his friend Diego Rivera and the other Mexican muralists. Like them, he has focused on his country and its people to create straightforward, evocative images. Alvarez Bravo lives in Mexico City. M.M.
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measurements: Overall: 16.3 x 11 cm (6 7/16 x 4 5/16 in.); Mounted: 19.3 x 14 cm (7 5/8 x 5 1/2 in.)
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inscriptions:

	inscription:	Written on verso: "M. Alvarez Bravo (signed)" possibly a later signature
Written on verso: "Manuel Alvarez/Bravo/ca.1947

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	remark:		

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CURRENT EXHIBITIONS

	title:		Forbidden Games: Surrealist and Modernist Photography
	opening date:   2014-10-19T00:00:00
	<i>Forbidden Games: Surrealist and Modernist Photography</i>. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (October 19, 2014-January 11, 2015).

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LEGACY EXHIBITIONS

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PROVENANCE

	The artist, Mexico City
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	Lorenzo Hernandez, CA
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	David Raymond [b.1979], New York, NY
	date: 2007
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	The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH
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RELATED WORKS

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CITATIONS

	Cleveland Museum of Art, Tom E. Hinson, Ian Walker, and Lisa Kurzner. Forbidden Games: Surrealist and Modernist Photography : the David Raymond Collection in the Cleveland Museum of Art. 2014.
	page number: 	cat. no. 25, p. 52.
	url:		

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IMAGES