Mezi uměním a revolucí – Modotti Tina (2015)

Photographer, actress, and political activist Tina Modotti (1896–1942) was as famous and respected in her time within avant-garde artistic and political circles as the much better-known artist Frida Kahlo is today, with whom she shared a close friendship. A unique selection of her correspondence written in English, Spanish, and Italian, complemented by the author's photographs, paints a dramatic picture of the restless and passionate life of this political and artistic revolutionary. Tina Modotti came from a poor working-class background, and at the age of seventeen, she left Italy with her family and moved to San Francisco, where she became acquainted with the local bohemian community. Here, she also met her first husband as well as her later lover and partner, the famous American photographer Edward Weston. Together, they opened a photography studio in Mexico and befriended Frida Kahlo, Diego Rivera, and other figures of the Mexican avant-garde. In 1927, she joined the Communist Party, and three years later, she was expelled from the country and forced to sail to Europe. In Moscow, she began working for the Comintern, also staying in Paris, and later became involved in the Spanish Civil War. In 1939, she returned to Mexico, where under still unexplained circumstances...