Tina Modotti

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Tina Modotti (1896 - 1942) was born Assunta Adelaide Luigia Modotti Mondini, in Udine, Italy. She was an Italian photographer, model, actress, muse and revolutionary. A passionate person, she once playfully described her profession as "men."

She immigrated to America in 1913 and settled in San Francisco. By 1917, Modotti had started acting and singing in the Italian Theater scene in San Francisco. In 1918, she married Roubaix "Robo" de l’Abrie Richey and they moved to Los Angeles where she began getting part in silent movies, including:

The Tigers Coat, 1920
Riding With Death, 1921
I Can Explain, 1922.

It was while in Los Angeles in 1919 that Modotti met the photographer Edward Weston and his assistant, Margrethe Mather. By 1921, Modotti had become Weston’s favorite model and at some point, his lover. Mondotti's husband Robo seems to have responded to this by moving to Mexico in 1921. After following Robo to Mexico City she discovered that he had become ill and had died two days before her arrival. She returned to America shortly thereafter. It was during this period that she, after being in front of the camera lens until then, went around to the other side and became a photographer. Eventually she replaced Margrethe Mather as Weston’s model, lover and assistant.

In 1923, Modotti, Weston, and one of his four sons [he left his wife and three other children back in America] moved to Mexico. There they became involved in the bohemian scene [might have even created it] in Mexico City. It was during this riotous period that Modotti was to meet many political radicals and began moving in Communist Party circles.

Sometime in 1923 she met muralist Diego Rivera at a party at her place. Rivera in turn would later meet his future wife Frida Kahlo at a party at the Modotti home. This was one of several stories of how Kahlo and Rivera met and dramatized in the 2002 movie "Frida." In that movie, Ashley Judd starred as Tina Mondotti.

In 1926, Tina and Weston separated. He returned to California and she turned more and more towards radical politics. By that time Modotti had become an accomplished photographer, taking many of her pictures for publication in left wing and Communist newspapers. Also in 1926, Diego Rivera’s wife Lupe Marín asserted that her separation from her husband was caused by his affair with Tina, a byproduct of Tina’s nude modeling for him for the murals as "the Abundant Earth" at the National Agricultural School in Chapingo [1926-27]. Their affair lasted for about a year and he pained her five times in the Chapingo murals. The Earth Enslaved, Germination, Virgin Earth,

1927 –28 Diego Rivera painted Modotti in his "Insurrection or Distribution of Arms "panel for a mural the Ministry of Education. It also included Tina’s friend Frida Kahlo. Less appreciated by Tina was the fact that DR pained her in close proximity to Mella, with whom Tina as trying to hide her affair, Peering at her from behind is the ominous face of Vidali. About this Tina wrote to Weston, "Recently Diego has taken to painting details with an exaggerated precision. He leaves nothing to the imagination." This also marked the end of her admiration of him as an artist, and probably as a communist as well.

Xavier Guerrero Modotti's lover from the summer 1927 through Dec 1927. A member of the Mexican CP Central Committee, Vidali had him sent to Moscow to remove him as a rival for Modotti's affections.

1929, August, Party at Tina’s following Frieda & Diego’s wedding.

In December of 1929 a solo exhibition of her photographs was held at the National Library.

Julio Antonio Mella.[b. ??, d. 1-10-29] [Summer 1928- Jan 1929] Cuban revolutionary in Mexico trying to organize the overthrow of the Cuban government of General Machado. Mella was assassinated January 10, 1929 while walking home late at night with Tina. The Mexican government tried to implicate Tina in the murder, even releasing nude photographs of her by Weston to try and generate public opinion against her. Diego Rivera plays a very active role in defending her and exposing the government’s attempt to frame her. It is unclear whether Mella was murdered by the Cuban government or if his death was brought about by internal Communist Party feuding, ie by the notoriously bloody hand of Vittorio Vidale.

When Diego Rivera was expelled from the Communist Party, in October of 1939, Tina sided with the Party, as she did with all things for the rest of her life.

Vittorio Vidali [b.1900- ?? ] Born in Italy, sent to Mexico by the Comintern to try and discipline the Mexican CP. He has been described by various different authors as "ruthless," violent," unscrupulous," and at best, "resourceful." One of the founders of the Italian Communist Party, Vidali was expelled from Italy when the Fascists took over and moved to Moscow where his talents and abilities and loyalties were more appreciated. At that point, if not earlier, Vidali was enlisted into the Stalinist secret police. He was sent to Mexico to work with Red Aid as his cover. He seems to have fallen in love with Tine, fueling suspicions that he might have had a hand in Mella’s killing. Vidali is belived to have been instrumental in the May 23, 1940 attempt on Leon Trotsky's life and in the eventual assination of Trotsky on August 20, 1940.

Deported from Mexico in 1930, she went to Europe where she narrowly escaped being arrested by the Italian secret police. She settled first in Germany, and then moved to Moscow where many believe that she was enlisted into Stalin’s secret police, continuing to work under the cover of the Red Aid organization.

When the Spanish Civil War erupted, in 1936, Vidali (then known as "Comandante Carlos") and Modotti (using the pseudonym "Maria") decamped from Moscow and went to Spain where they stayed and worked until the bitter end, 1939. At that time Modotti was allowed to return to Mexico. That Vidali, and by implication Modotti, were deeply involved in the Stalinist purges in Spain at this time is generally agreed upon. Modotti also work with the famed Canadian Dr. Norman Bethune who at that time was inventing the mobile blood unit, most notably during the disastrous retreat from Malaga in 1937.

In April of 1939 Tina left Spain with Vidali and returned to Mexico under an assumed name.

1942 Modotti died in Mexico City under suspicious circumstances. After hearing about her death, Diego Rivera suggested that Vidali had done it. Modotti had known too much about his activities [he is rumored to have personally committed as many as 400 executions] in Spain and was becoming dissatisfied with Stalinism herself.

Poet Pablo Neruda’s composed Tina Modotti’s epitaph, at least part of which is carved on her tombstone, almost lost in Mexico City’s vast Dolores Cemetery.

"Pure your gentle name, pure your fragile life, bees, shadows, fire, snow, silence and foam, combined with steel and wire and pollen to make up your firm and delicate being."

In 1991 Sotheby’s auctioned off an original Modotti print, ‘’’Roses’’’ for $165,000, at that point the highest price ever paid for a photograph.

Further Reading