20th-Century Latin American Art - 1Earth Antiques and Appraisals Magazine

TRENDS
In the last few years, there's been increased interest in Latin American photography. In this category, there's room for someone with a modest collecting budget. While some Mexican photography is quite expensive, there are wonderful things that can be purchased in a reasonable price range. Undiscovered artists are creating fine photography available in galleries in the southwest and west coast.

Two Fridas,
Frida Kahlo, 1939

Prominent names in photography include Hugo Brehme and Manuel Alvares Bravo. Brehme, a German who spent his entire adult life in Mexico, started photographing around 1903-1905. His career spanned the first half of the 20th century; he produced an important record of Mexico in the period through the Revolution up into the 1940s. There have been books and museum shows on his work, but his pieces are still quite reasonable. Brehme's photographs are readily available for less than $500.

Bravo's work spans almost the entire century, from the 1920s to the early 1980s. The Museum of Modern Art in New York did a big retrospective of his photography a few years ago. His work is more expensive, but still accessible. Bravo's works start at $1,000 to $1,500. Though, an early Bravo of a female nude from the 1930s sold in a spring, 2000 auction for approximately $120,000.

REFERENCES
For a closer look at 20th-century Latin American Art, we suggest the following:

Leonard's Price Index of Latin American Art at Auction, by Susan Theran.
A Song to Reality: Latin-American Photography 1860-1993, by Erika Billeter.
Art in Latin America, by Dawn Ades
Essays on Mexican Art by Octavio Paz.