A Visual Story: Graciela Iturbide’s “Mexico” Series Opens in January at Museum of Fine Arts Boston

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Boston, MA — Throughout a five-decade-long career, photographer Graciela Iturbide (born 1942) has focused on capturing and understanding the beauty, rituals, challenges, and contradictions of her native Mexico. Graciela Iturbide’s Mexico features nearly 140 photographs that tell the visual story of the country since the late 1970s. Going beyond documentary photography, Iturbide’s work reveals Mexico’s complexities through her personal explorations. Focused on the tensions between urban and rural life, human presence and nature, and indigenous and Spanish cultures, her photographs have contributed to Mexico’s visual identity while calling attention to the rich syncretism, diversity, and inequalities of Mexican society. The exhibition is drawn primarily from Iturbide’s own collection and also highlights a recent acquisition of her photographs, the first major group of works by the artist to enter the Museum’s collection—35 purchased by the MFA and two donated by Iturbide. Loans from museums and private collections throughout the U.S., Mexico, and France are also included.

On view from January 19 through May 12, 2019, in the Henry and Lois Foster Gallery, the exhibition features interpretation in English and Spanish, as well as a documentary video of the artist, produced by the Museum and shot at Iturbide’s studio in Mexico City. Graciela Iturbide’s Mexico is accompanied by an illustrated catalog produced by MFA Publications, which features more than 100 beautifully reproduced black-and-white photographs alongside essays that invite readers to share in Iturbide’s personal artistic journey.

The exhibition is supported by the Leigh and Stephen Braude Fund for Latin American Art, The Bruce and Laura Monrad Fund for Exhibitions, and the Diane Krane Family and Jonathan and Gina Krane Family Fund. Generous support for the publication was provided by the Andrew W. Mellon Publications Fund.

Above: Torito, Coyoacán, Ciudad de México / Little Bull, Coyoacán, Mexico City, 1982.