The Visit, Manuel Alvarez Bravo

Exhibition Label: "Signs of Faith: Photographs from the Collection," Oct-2001, Elissa L.Anderson This photograph of three life-sized sculptures, two of which probably represent Christ and one the Virgin Mary, reflects the essential role of artifacts in Mexican Catholicism. Such objects are used to facilitate prayer by symbolizing the saints upon whom worshippers can meditate. Much of Alvarez Bravo’s work consists of this type of ethnographic study of Catholic artifacts and customs popular in his Mexican homeland. His preoccupation with religion, death, and mysticism is embodied in this picture. Archive Label: These photographs are the work of the still-living Mexican artist Manuel Alvarez Bravo. They were selected from the Spencer Museum of Art’s collection of works by the artist which includes both individual photographs and a Manuel Alvarez Bravo Portfolio. Representing six decades of Alvarez Bravo’s active production, the photo-graphs range from formal abstraction to straight-forward representation. In both, the artist captures a sense of place and his own national identity. While the individual photographs not included in the portfolio were printed at various times, those from the port-folio were printed in Mexico City in 1977. Photographs in the portfolio are titled in both Spanish and English, however, they are not necessarily exact translations.