Marble
University of Notre Dame
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On the Edge of Time

Date

1992

Creator

Mariana Yampolsky

Location

Raclin Murphy Museum of Art

Mariana Yampolsky lovingly recorded her adopted country. She was born and raised in Chicago, and went to Mexico to study art in 1945. She took up photography almost by chance, and later studied with Lola and Manuel Álvarez Bravo. Yampolsky documented the daily lives of rural Mexicans, reflecting their lives in genre images, and studies of vernacular architecture, buildings of wood, rock, thatch and adobe. She was recognized for the mystery of her creative images, and her sensibility has been compared to Magical Realism in literature. The corner of this wall at Santa Rita, Xicotepec, in Puebla State, is decorated with the carved face of a Mayan moon goddess. The deity was associated with water, fertility and growth, and the progress of the lunar calendar. Yampolsky placed her face at the intersection of two compositional quadrants, and alluded to the passing of the months, and of lifetimes. from Touchstones of the Twentieth Century: A History of Photography at the University of Notre Dame (exhibition, 2020-21)

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Mariana Yampolsky lovingly recorded her adopted country. She was born and raised in Chicago, and went to Mexico to study art in 1945. She took up photography almost by chance, and later studied with Lola and Manuel Álvarez Bravo. Yampolsky documented the daily lives of rural Mexicans, reflecting their lives in genre images, and studies of vernacular architecture, buildings of wood, rock, thatch and adobe. She was recognized for the mystery of her creative images, and her sensibility has been compared to Magical Realism in literature. The corner of this wall at Santa Rita, Xicotepec, in Puebla State, is decorated with the carved face of a Mayan moon goddess. The deity was associated with water, fertility and growth, and the progress of the lunar calendar. Yampolsky placed her face at the intersection of two compositional quadrants, and alluded to the passing of the months, and of lifetimes. from Touchstones of the Twentieth Century: A History of Photography at the University of Notre Dame (exhibition, 2020-21)
Open external viewer application
  • Mariana Yampolsky lovingly recorded her adopted country. She was born and raised in Chicago, and went to Mexico to study art in 1945. She took up photography almost by chance, and later studied with Lola and Manuel Álvarez Bravo. Yampolsky documented the daily lives of rural Mexicans, reflecting their lives in genre images, and studies of vernacular architecture, buildings of wood, rock, thatch and adobe. She was recognized for the mystery of her creative images, and her sensibility has been compared to Magical Realism in literature. The corner of this wall at Santa Rita, Xicotepec, in Puebla State, is decorated with the carved face of a Mayan moon goddess. The deity was associated with water, fertility and growth, and the progress of the lunar calendar. Yampolsky placed her face at the intersection of two compositional quadrants, and alluded to the passing of the months, and of lifetimes. from Touchstones of the Twentieth Century: A History of Photography at the University of Notre Dame (exhibition, 2020-21)
  • Mariana Yampolsky lovingly recorded her adopted country. She was born and raised in Chicago, and went to Mexico to study art in 1945. She took up photography almost by chance, and later studied with Lola and Manuel Álvarez Bravo. Yampolsky documented the daily lives of rural Mexicans, reflecting their lives in genre images, and studies of vernacular architecture, buildings of wood, rock, thatch and adobe. She was recognized for the mystery of her creative images, and her sensibility has been compared to Magical Realism in literature. The corner of this wall at Santa Rita, Xicotepec, in Puebla State, is decorated with the carved face of a Mayan moon goddess. The deity was associated with water, fertility and growth, and the progress of the lunar calendar. Yampolsky placed her face at the intersection of two compositional quadrants, and alluded to the passing of the months, and of lifetimes. from Touchstones of the Twentieth Century: A History of Photography at the University of Notre Dame (exhibition, 2020-21)
Mariana Yampolsky (Mexican, born in the United States, 1925 - 2002)
1992
Photographs
Gelatin silver print
2007.047.001
goddesses
Latin American
Mexican
moons
time
walls
water
© Mariana Yampolsky
Not on view, please request access
15 7/8 x 20 in. (40.4 x 50.9 cm)
Humana Foundation Endowment

Our collection information is a work in progress and may be updated as new research findings emerge. If you have spotted an error, please contact Raclin Murphy Museum of Art at RMMACollections@nd.edu.