Mírame Bien: Portraits of Mexico by Manuel Álvarez Bravo, Paul Strand, and Edward Weston

Mírame Bien (“Look at Me Well”) is an intimate look at the work of three photography masters in Mexico in the 1920s and ’30s. The exhibition investigates how shifting identities of “insider” and “outsider” affect images of people, places, and things. Attracted by the cultural renaissance taking place in post-revolutionary Mexico, Edward Weston and Paul Strand traveled south of the border in search of new beginnings and artistic inspiration. Manuel Álvarez Bravo met both these men in Mexico City, and their interactions and experiences shaped the way they saw and captured the world around them. Mírame Bien features ten works from the JSMA’s collection: gelatin silver prints by Weston, platinum prints by Álvarez Bravo, and a selection of photogravures from Paul Strand’s “The Mexican Portfolio,” a recent museum acquisition. Organized by Cheryl Hartup, Associate Curator of Academic Programs and Latin American Art, Mírame Bien complements the topics explored in Cuba Ocho and Diálogos, two exhibitions that celebrate the museum’s  growing collection of art from Latin America and the Caribbean.