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Thumbnail-size images of copyrighted artworks are displayed under fair use, in accordance with guidelines recommended by the Code of Best Practices in Fair Use for the Visual Arts, published by the College Art Association in February 2015.

Tarp and Photographer's Background

Mariana Yampolsky (Mexican (born in the United States), 1925–2002)
1970s

Medium/Technique Photograph, gelatin silver
Dimensions Image: 17.5 × 17.5 cm (6 7/8 × 6 7/8 in.)
Credit Line Lucy Dalbiac Luard Fund
Accession Number2022.1291
NOT ON VIEW
ClassificationsPhotographs
Mexican artist Emilio Amero worked in multiple media ranging from graphic design and painting to filmmaking and printmaking. Emilio Amero’s 1930s photographs “Iguanas at Market” and “Woman with a Water Pot on her Head, Espinal” reveal his modern vision of mexicanidad. His interest in abstract forms is evident in both of these images of Mexican daily life, revealing both the iconic symbol of the iguana as well as a traditional water pot.
Mariana Yampolsky moved to Mexico in her twenties and is known for her career as a photographer, as well as her work as a curator, writer, engraver, and editor in Mexico. Yampolsky’s 1970s “Tarp and Photographer’s Background” and “Untitled (Young Girl in White Dress, Geurrero” represent the American-born Mexican photographer’s deep interest in her adopted country. “Tarp and Photographer’s Background” brings forth the artist’s interest in artifice and reality, while reflecting on the role of the photographer. “Untitled” captures a young girl in the streets of the state of Geurrero through Yampolsky’s striking use of light and shadow as well as the sense of texture in the girls’ dress next to the weathered wall.

Signed signed in pencil on verso
ProvenanceBy 2002, from the artist, Mexico City, to Luis Alvarez (collector and dealer), Mexico City; 2021, sold by Luis Alvarez to Gregory LeRoy|Charles Isaacs Photographs, Inc., New York; 2022, sold by Charles Isaacs Photographs, Inc. to the MFA. (Accession Date: April 20, 2022)