Portrait in Four Movements

Description

Nahui Olin was a celebrated artist, writer and muse during the cultural renaissance of Mexico City in the 1920s, who died impoverished and alone. In this captivating essay, Chloe Aridjis explores the artist’s shifting fortunes and seismic passions through her relationships with the men who tried to capture her. Taking her name from the Aztec sign of cosmic movement, Nahui Olin’s life was one of fire and tempest, gunpower and great heights, revolution and alchemy, the intellect and the dream. An essential read for anyone interested in the lives of female artists.

Words for Portraits is a series of essays and short stories by Juxta Press from English-language and Italian-language authors written on a portrait of their choice. Whether it’s an oil painting, photograph, a close-up, sculpture, sketch, image or mask, every portrait captures a transient moment of a body or face. Each book is the result of an encounter and collaboration between the visual and the verbal, the temporal and the spatial, the silent and the spoken.