Artist
Manuel Carrillo (Mexican, 1906–1989)Mexican, 1906–1989
CultureMexican
Titles
- Untitled
Dateno date
MediumGelatin silver print
DimensionsImage: 12 5/16 × 8 15/16 in. (31.3 × 22.7 cm)
Sheet: 14 × 10 15/16 in. (35.6 × 27.8 cm)
Sheet: 14 × 10 15/16 in. (35.6 × 27.8 cm)
Credit LineThe Sonia and Kaye Marvins Portrait Collection, museum purchase funded by Sonia and Kaye Marvins
Object number88.387
Not on view
Explore Further
Department
PhotographySpecial Collections
Object Type
Manuel Carrillo, who participated in
over three hundred exhibitions in twenty-two countries, entered the field of
photography in 1955, at the age of 49. Adolfo Ruis Cotines, his uncle and a
future president of Mexico, gave a very young Carrillo his first camera, which
he immediately traded for some marbles. "How stupid not to have found out
then that my destiny was to be photography," he stated later. From his
first U.S. exhibition at the Chicago Public Library in 1960, Carrillo went on
to produce a tremendous body of work, now located internationally in public and
private collections.
Carrillo's primary
subjects were the people of Mexico, the richness of the Mexican culture, and
the importance of family and tradition. While Carrillo frequently photographed
people out-of-doors in the midst of daily activities, this studio portrait of a
young girl with her doll corresponds to the portion of Carrillo’s work that
consciously comments on internal and external realities. The girl and her doll
initially appear quite similar with the same disheveled hair and lacy costume. However,
the smooth, clear skin and sober, almost expressionless, face of the child
contrasts with the perpetually animate, freckled face of the doll. Carrillo
even emphasized the child's eyes and eyebrows in a doll-like fashion by
spot-toning directly onto the surface of the print. In the end, the doll has
seemingly acquired the attributes of a happy child, and the child the closed
facade of a doll.
Provenance Research Ongoing Inscriptions, Signatures and Marks
verso mid left in ink " M Carrillo "
verso center a square stamp with addition in ink " Foto de: / MANUEL CARRILLO / Mexico[underlined] / No. 313[underlined] "
Cataloguing data may change with further research.
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