Isabel Tejeda, a teacher, curator, and art critic from Alicante, recalls how a chance encounter in 1996 led her to Tina Modotti (Udine 1896 – Mexico City 1942). While conducting research on Alicante painters with a Rome-based scholarship, Tejeda discovered a long-standing fascination with Modotti, a photographer and political activist who also appeared as an actress in Hollywood and later played a significant role during Spain’s Civil War. The collection now at Jeu de Paume in Paris features a sweeping display of Modotti’s life, drawing from about 300 images from museums and collections around the world, including major institutions in the United States and Mexico.
The Mapfre Foundation organized a sample that traveled to central Barcelona and then to the Foam Photography Museum in Amsterdam. The exhibition, opened in Paris with limited access in the presence of the French Minister of Culture, welcomes a broader public beginning Tuesday. It will run through the end of June, highlighting Tejeda’s enthusiasm for Modotti’s work. She notes that the project, her third collaboration with the Mapfre Foundation, aims to illuminate Modotti’s life and influence, a theme she first explored in 2019.
The exhibition emphasizes original prints from the 1920s rather than contemporary reproductions. About 85% of the pieces are authentic photographs from Modotti’s era, with some works loaned from U.S. institutions such as MoMA in New York and SFMOMA in San Francisco, as well as Mexico’s MUNAL and the Televisa Foundation. In addition to nearly 300 photographs, the show includes two family photo albums and Modotti’s published magazine pieces, including poetry and a page from 1937 that reflects the 1930s era and Modotti’s connections with Alicante, Italy, and Ayuda magazine’s reception in Mexico after her premature death.
When Tina Modotti threw “Viento del pueblo” into the trenches
“Modotti moved to the United States at sixteen, worked in Hollywood, and, with the help of photographer Edward Weston, relocated to Mexico. There she joined circles connected to the Communist Party, where her political activism began in earnest,” the curator explains. During the 1930s she lived in Moscow and Berlin before settling in Spain, where she crossed paths with Miguel Hernández, María Teresa León, Machado, and Alberti. There, she assumed a prominent leadership role as a brigadier general within the Red Socorro during the Civil War.
The works on view cover post-revolutionary Mexico while Spain’s political climate shifted away from photography toward active engagement. Tejeda emphasizes that, among the images attributed to city wind, a small number may remain unidentified, and some photographs may capture Modotti as a dedicated photographic worker who witnessed the Spanish conflict. The overall focus underlines Modotti’s humanity, the dignity she captured in her subjects, and the lasting social concerns embedded in her images.
New York to Alicante
Next projects
The Paris exhibition will stay on view through June, with a likely journey to Mexico thereafter. Among the future plans, Isabel Tejeda will participate in ARCO in March as the curator of a booth featuring three Spanish artists. Another planned show in October will be curated by Soledad Seville at the Queen Sofia Institute, and Alfonso Albacete will be showcased in Murcia.