Retrato de lo Eterno (Portrait of the Eternal)

Manuel Álvarez Bravo, Portfolio published by Acorn Editions Limited

Negative 1932 - 1933; printed 1977

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In the left foreground of this black and white photograph, a man in overalls leans heavily against the corner of a weathered wooden building. This takes up a full third of the picture. The ground on which the man is standing slopes into the distance, where it meets deeply eroded fields. At the far end of the fields, and located just right-of-center within the image, a lone bare tree stands against a placid sky.
A trompe-l'œil (French, “trick the eye”) still life painting consisting of a stretched canvas, painted around all four sides to resemble a rectangular piece of wood cut from a longer plank. The top and bottom edges have a series of lines painted with a thick impasto to resemble the radial grain of a cut board. At the center of the composition is a dark hollow recess covered with a broken pane of glass held in place by nine tack nails, which contains 14 peanuts, functioning as a makeshift peanut dispenser. Tucked behind the pane of glass at the top of the recess is a white paper card which reads “Try One. / S. NIKTA.” “S. NIKTA” is “Atkins” spelled backwards, probably the name of a friend or patron of the artist.
You Will Never Catch Me (five boxes on sheet, labeled 1, 2, 3, 4, 5), Mara McAfee, lithograph on Arches paper
A Survivor, Alfred Leslie, oil and collage on canvas