Weston too pursued indigenous Mexican style (that sunlight) and subjects (woven palm leaves, ancient stone carvings, silly arrangements of folk dolls), though he seems to have come at it with the Western Modernist attitude of plumbing the deep, raw feeling of more "primitive" peoples.
Meanwhile the relationship of Weston and Modotti grew troubled. For his deeply sad 1924 portrait of her, Weston schemed, as he had in his shot of Galván, to use unseen action to fill the picture with emotion. "She leaned against a whitewashed wall. I drew close . . . and kissed her. A tear rolled down her cheek — and then I captured forever the moment."
Weston returned to California and lived to the ripe age of 71 while shooting astonishing, influential photos of shells and deserts and naked ladies. Modotti joined the Mexican Communist Party, shacked up with a Cuban rebel, was framed for an attack on the Mexican president, was thrown out of Mexico, got involved in politics in Moscow, did aid work in the Spanish Civil War, snuck back into Mexico, and died there in 1942, of an apparent heart attack in a taxi.
Related:
Slideshow: Two Mexican exhibits at MFA, Viva Modernism, Photos: 'Seeing Songs' at MFA, More 
- Slideshow: Two Mexican exhibits at MFA
"Viva Mexico!" with "Vida y Drama"
- Viva Modernism
Long before the threat of swine flu, Mexico was the scene of an outbreak of a very different kind: Modernism.
- Photos: 'Seeing Songs' at MFA
Contemporary Outlook: Seeing Songs at the MFA
- Splendor on the screen
The arc of Elia Kazan's professional life has its origins in the Group Theatre, where he was trained as an actor and performed in the original 1930s productions of Clifford Odets's Waiting for Lefty and Golden Boy .
- Pottery, Potter, mummies, and a 'Rare Bird'
The art of 2000 BC Egypt, visions from the Iraq War and AIDS activism, and the magic of a digital technology and Harry Potter make up the highlights of Boston's autumn art calendar.
- Joy, not jamming
In 1992, Nigerian juju master King Sunny Adé and his African Beats played the Park Plaza Hotel ballroom as part of the Boston Globe Jazz & Blues Festival. What I remember most vividly is the hypnotic overlap of undulating guitar lines.
- More than a feeling
The centerpiece of the Museum of Fine Arts' "Contemporary Outlook: Seeing Songs" is Candice Breitz's 2005 Queen (A Portrait of Madonna), a wall of 30 televisions, each showing a different Madonna fan singing a cappella to her 1990 greatest-hits compilation, The Immaculate Collection. They wear headphones, bob their heads, sing aloud to music we can't hear.
- Get around to it
You would not guess, listening to his music, that Arthur Russell grew up in Oskaloosa, Iowa. In fact you might not guess that he came from anywhere.
- Eloquent Nude: The Love and Legacy of Edward Weston & Charis Wilson
Ian McCluskey's exploration of the legendary "model wife" collaboration between Modernist photo master Edward Weston and moneyed bohemian Charis Wilson is no casual or incidental documentary but a well-crafted display of living history.
- Made in the dark
A few songs into their set at the MFA's Remis Auditorium Friday, Beach House's Victoria Legrand gave a second, graver plea for less light.
- David Hilliard at Carroll and Sons
It's not every day that a guy like me gets to enjoy a photographic investigation of daddy-boy relationships. . . . well, outside of a naughty format.
- Less
Topics:
Museum And Gallery
, Mexico, Photography, Galvan Shooting, More
, Mexico, Photography, Galvan Shooting, Painting, Visual Arts, Cultural Institutions and Parks, Museums, Museum of Fine Arts, Frida Kahlo, Diego Rivera, Less
