Los Agachados

Manuel Alvarez Bravo Mexican

Not on view

Beloved by the Surrealists, Alvarez Bravo was a master at making the ordinary extraordinary. Here, in Los Agachados, he portrays a group of laborers eating lunch at a Mexico City diner. Through his framing, the artist creates an abundance of visual planes—the dramatic rectilinear shadow, the partially rolled-up metal curtain, the cement walls, the tiled floor—to evoke a sense of incarceration. Yet the midday light also imbues the faceless figures with a sense of dignity and tranquility that challenges their captive state.

Los Agachados, Manuel Alvarez Bravo (Mexican, Mexico City 1902–2002 Mexico City), Gelatin silver print

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