Primera Comunion, Chalma, Estado de Mexico (First Communion, Chalma, State of Mexico)

Photograph

-

DePaul Art Museum

Name/Title

Primera Comunion, Chalma, Estado de Mexico (First Communion, Chalma, State of Mexico)

Entry/Object ID

2003.57

Description

Black and white photograph of a person in a white dress holding flowers and wearing a skeletal mask in front of an outdoor entryway.

Acquisition

Notes

Collection of DePaul Art Museum, Art Acquisition Endowment Fund and Religious Art Fund

Made/Created

Artist

Iturbide, Graciela

Notes

Creation Date: 1985, printed 1998

Ethnography

Notes

Mexico, North America North America, Mexico North America Mexico

Lexicon

Getty AAT

Concept

religious concepts, skulls (skeleton components), skeleton components (animal components), animal components, biological components, components (objects parts), dead (people), people (agents), ceremonies, cultural events, events (activities), ceremonial masks, masks (costume), costume (mode of fashion)

Hierarchy Name

Associated Concepts (hierarchy name), Components (hierarchy name), People (hierarchy name), Events (hierarchy name), Costume (hierarchy name), Furnishings and Equipment (hierarchy name)

Facet

Associated Concepts Facet, Objects Facet, Agents Facet, Activities Facet

LOC Thesaurus for Graphic Materials

Holy Communion, Death, Black & white photographs, Catholicism

Legacy Lexicon

Class

PHOTOGRAPHS

Dimensions

Dimension Description

image

Width

23.495 cm

Length

32.385 cm

Exhibitions

Realism and Magic: Latin American Photography from the Collection of DePaul University
LATINXAMERICAN
Christina Fernandez: Multiple Exposures

Interpretative Labels

Label Type

Cultural/Historical Context

Label

After the death of her young daughter, photography became therapeutic for Graciela Iturbide. According to the artist, photography allowed her to explore how “in Mexican culture people are afraid of death, that’s why they try to attack it straight on, so they play with it, they try to make light of it.” Collaborating with her subjects, Iturbide provides a poetic, yet sensitive vision of Indigenous rituals of remembrance veiled by Spanish, Catholic, and contemporary influences. Here, a young girl celebrates her first Holy Communion, a Catholic ceremony commemorating Christ’s sacrificial death, in a cemetery. Obscured by the skeletal mask, low-exposure further shrouds her identity.