Pier 24 Photography from the Pilara Family Foundation
Pier 24 Photography from the Pilara Family Foundation
Tina Modotti
Selected Puppet Studies from 'The Hairy Ape'
Auction Closed
October 25, 04:33 PM GMT
Estimate
6,000 - 9,000 USD
Lot Details
Description
Tina Modotti
1896 - 1942
Selected Puppet Studies from 'The Hairy Ape'
2 gelatin silver prints, comprising The Police Beating Yank and The Police Taking Yank Away, the latter credited and each with annotations in pencil on the reverse, framed, 1929
images to 5¾ by 9⅝ in. (14.6 by 24.4 cm.)
frames to 14 by 17½ in. (35.6 by 44.5 cm.)
Private collection, acquired from the above, 1993
Sotheby's New York, 17 October 2006, Sale 8227, Lot 112
Tina Modotti: The Mexican Renaissance (Paris, 2000), p. 113
Margaret Hooks, Tina Modotti 55 (New York, 2002), p. 113
Russian-born artist and puppeteer Louis Bunin originally came to Mexico from Chicago to work as an assistant to Diego Rivera. A committed social activist, Bunin staged a marionette version of Eugene O'Neill's expressionist, anti-establishment play, The Hairy Ape at the Casa del Indio, Mexico City in 1929.
The Hairy Ape tells the story of Bob "Yank" Smith, a laborer on an ocean liner, who is insulted by the daughter of a ship owner. Yank begins a steep descent into mental and physical illness as he wanders the streets of New York, trying to find a place where he belongs. While visiting the zoo, he decides to release a gorilla, believing they are one and the same. The gorilla attacks Yank, fatally crushing his ribs, and throws him into the cage where he dies.