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The Hindu
05-07-2025
- Entertainment
- The Hindu
Frida Kahlo: a contested Mexican icon?
It's my first time in Mexico City and I am excited to visit La Casa Azul (The Blue House), Frida Kahlo's former home, which is now a museum. Years ago, a glimpse into her personal life through her art and belongings, exhibited at the Victoria and Albert museum in London, drew me into Kahlo's world, and with good reason. Her artistic journey, defiance of convention, and stormy relationship with her husband, artist Diego Rivera, made for an undeniably compelling story. This February morning, I step into the cobalt house in the neighbourhood of Coyoacán with a sense of expectation. Walking through the sun-dappled garden and from room to room, I catch glimpses of the artist as daughter, lover, patient, and wife. On display are Kahlo's childhood photos, letters, and a bed with a mirror fixed above it, which allowed her to paint self-portraits while recovering from a bus accident. I pass her brace, the custom-made shoe for her polio-affected leg, and paintings about her miscarriage. The kitchenware, the collection of indigenous sculptures, the quirky papier-mâché Judas skeletons hanging in different rooms, her wheelchair parked quietly in her studio, her once-banned still life, rich with symbols of female desire — all bear witness to the life she shared with Rivera. I wonder about the mythologisation of Kahlo, the Mexican artist who now stares back at you from cushion covers, beach towels, coffee mugs, and tote bags across the world. Hailed as a global icon, how does her own country view her? Pain and passion Kahlo's personal life was filled with pain, which she channelled into art. Afflicted by polio as a child, she met with a bus accident as a teenager. While recovering in a body cast, she began focusing on painting. In her lifetime, she underwent 30 operations. Her marriage to Rivera was tumultuous. He had several affairs, but when he had one with Kahlo's younger sister, it broke her heart. She went on to have several affairs herself, including a rumoured relationship with Leon Trotsky and even a few women. Hailed as a feminist for her portrayal of the female form and experience, and celebrated for her self-portraits, Kahlo's art still resonates with audiences everywhere. And India is no exception. 'For the world, Kahlo is a female icon and path-breaking artist. She lived and painted on her own terms. Her bohemian lifestyle challenged family norms, which unsettles society even today. But before judging, we must ask, who is writing history and who is reading it,' says Aparajita Jain, co-director of Nature Morte Art Limited, an art gallery in New Delhi. Artist Dhruvi Acharya feels Kahlo was one of the first artists to make both her inner and outer worlds visible on canvas. 'Her honest work has been influencing artists to express themselves without feeling constrained by artistic traditions or norms,' she says. Relevance in her homeland For the world, she remains an eminent artist — a tragic, resilient icon, made of equal parts suffering and defiance. But do Mexicans view Kahlo similarly? 'Mexicans weren't prepared for the way people see her now,' says Lorena Vazquez, 42, an archaeologist and guide. The turning point came in the 1990s, when Madonna purchased a Kahlo painting. It catapulted her from being known as the partner of Rivera (considered a national treasure) to a global phenomenon who eclipsed his fame, she says. 'To me, Frida is a powerful example of a woman who dared to be different — not just because of the trauma she went through or the accident that changed her life, but because she lived life on her own terms,' Lorena adds. Kahlo didn't produce a very large body of work — fewer than 150 paintings, most of them self-portraits — largely because of her health issues and the accident that confined her to bed. Lorena's husband, Hector Vazquez, 45, feels Kahlo is an overrated artist. 'Her art isn't particularly impressive,' says Hector, who believes her fame comes more from her association with Rivera, accident and eccentric life. 'Her art is unique and eccentric, and that's what makes it appealing. But from a technical standpoint, I don't think her work is particularly strong.' But others outside the country differ. 'Art isn't just about brush strokes — skill is only part of it. Higher intellect and artistic expression, and the willingness to adhere to your expression despite challenges, define true art,' says Jain. 'Rivera's artistic legacy is unmatched but the world seems to be obsessed with Kahlo. I admire her more as a person than as a painter. She lived a radically different life at a time when open marriages weren't accepted. Even in betrayal, she found a way to rewrite the rules, and create a new relationship that worked for her'Lorena VazquezArchaeologist and guide Branding Kahlo Hector says Kahlo is celebrated globally because her family turned her name into a brand after Madonna brought attention to her work. They built a mini empire around it, but he believes the media ultimately shaped her image. However, Alejandra Martinez Gallardo, an art historian and partner at Somos Arte Experiencias, a travel and concierge service in Mexico, believes that her art has its own merit. 'Kahlo's work is technically sophisticated and emotionally raw. Her ability to fuse surrealism with Mexican folk art and unflinching portrayal of identity, gender, and pain distinguishes her as a significant artistic force,' she says. Gallardo believes young Mexicans feel a connection to Kahlo because her themes of identity, gender, and self-expression align with contemporary issues. 'Rivera's work resonates less directly but remains an important historical and artistic touchstone. Many young people see them as foundational figures who laid the groundwork for modern Mexican cultural identity,' she says. Cynthia Gomez Tagle, 54, partner at Somos Artes Experiencas, agrees Kahlo is more popular abroad. 'Rivera's work has come to be perceived as a historical manifesto from another era, while Kahlo's work is perceived as more current,' she adds. At the V&A, surrounded by immersive projections of her life in objects, I thought I understood Kahlo's world. But in Mexico City, hearing the voices of those who have grown up in her shadow, I realised that no single version of Kahlo exists. The world sees her as a symbol — Mexico still grapples with the woman behind it. The writer is a Mumbai-based author and podcaster.
Time Out
17-06-2025
- Entertainment
- Time Out
A brand-new Frida Kahlo museum is coming to Mexico City
Mexico City is already the ultimate pilgrimage destination for fans of Frida Kahlo's raw, thought-provoking and world-famous paintings, but a brand-new venue dedicated to this legendary artist is set to open in the city in the autumn. Casa Roja, which is scheduled to open on September 27, will house the brand-new Museo Casa Kahlo, located in the Mexican capital's Coyoacán area, not too far from Casa Azul. While the latter is Kahlo's birthplace and opened as a museum way back in 1958 through a trust established by her husband and artist Diego Rivera, Museo Casa Kahlo is the first institution to be run by descendants of the iconic Mexican painter. The property used to belong to her parents and then to her younger sister, Cristina. It has remained in the family for decades, and Kahlo's grandniece, Mara Romeo Kahlo, has allowed researchers and public figures such as Salma Hayek into the house's archive. This is the first time it will open as a public museum. So, what can we expect? Well, Museo Casa Kahlo will incorporate Kahlo's dolls, clothing, jewellery, personal letters, photographs and lots of other objects and documents to provide visitors with an up-close and personal insight into the artists' childhood. The photography of Kahlo's father, Guillermo, will also be on display, and the museum will include space for rotating exhibitions showcasing artwork by Mexican, Latin American and women artists. Adán García Fajardo, the Museum of Memory and Tolerance's current academic director, will lead Museo Casa Kahlo and it will be overseen by the newly-founded Fundación Kahlo, a New York-based non-profit. 'This is a dream long held by our family,' Mara Romeo Kahlo said in a statement, according to The Art Newspaper. 'Frida's legacy belongs to the world, but it begins here – on this land, in these homes and in the culture that shaped her.' Elsewhere in Coyoacán, you'll find street murals and life-size bronze statues of Frida Kahlo, so make sure you venture past some of those on your way to the museums. Oh, and have a look at the very best things to do in Mexico City.
Hypebeast
30-05-2025
- Entertainment
- Hypebeast
New Frida Kahlo Museum is Coming to Mexico City
Summary A new museum dedicated to the life and legacy ofFrida Kahlois set to open this September in Mexico City's historic Coyoacán district. The museum, Museo Casa Kahlo, will be housed in the Casa Roja, a family residence once owned by Kahlo's parents, with the transformation helmed by New York-based architecture firmRockwell Group. Museo Casa Kahlo will feature rotating exhibitions and contemporary art shows, with a spotlight on Mexican, Latin American, and women artists, enriching the artist's already celebrated legacy. Additional artifacts on view include photographs, dolls jewelry, clothing and letters from the artist's childhood. The new museum offers a complementary experience just a few doors down from the famous Casa Azul, Kahlo's childhood home. While Casa Azul, operated by the Fideicomiso de los Museos Diego Rivera y Frida Kahlo trust, showcases personal artifacts and artworks by Kahlo and her husband Diego Rivera, Casa Roja will focus on Kahlo's early life, her influences, and her cultural environment. 'This is a dream long held by our family,' said Mara Romeo Kahlo, the artist's granddaughter and heir. 'Frida's legacy belongs to the world, but it begins here — on this land, in these homes, and in the culture that shaped her.' Museo Casa Kahlo will open its doors on September 27.
New York Times
22-05-2025
- Entertainment
- New York Times
Mexico City to Welcome a New Frida Kahlo Museum
A new museum dedicated to the artist Frida Kahlo's life and work, Museo Casa Kahlo, will open this fall in Coyoacán, Mexico City, members of the Kahlo family announced on Thursday. The museum, designed in part by Rockwell Group, will be located at Casa Roja, a private residence purchased by Frida Kahlo's parents and handed down to Frida and her sisters. It was ultimately given to the museum by Mara Romeo Kahlo, the artist's grandniece, her closest living relative and heir. 'Everyone knows Frida the artist,' Romeo said in an interview on Wednesday, but not 'the human being, my aunt. The family was very important for Frida because it was her support.' Casa Roja became the home of Frida's sister Christina, who then handed it down to her daughter Isolde, who then handed it down to her daughter Mara Romeo. It will be adjacent to the famed Casa Azul, the family home built by Kahlo's father, Guillermo, that is part of Museo Frida Kahlo and managed by a trust — Fideicomiso de los Museos Diego Rivera y Frida Kahlo — administered by the central bank of Mexico. While Casa Azul tells the story of her life with her husband, Diego Rivera, the new museum will focus on Kahlo's origin story, starting with her father and his photography career, which helped set Kahlo on her artistic path. Adán García Fajardo, who is currently the academic director at the Museum of Memory and Tolerance in Mexico City, will be director of the museum. The creation of Museo Casa Kahlo is made possible in part by a newly formed nonprofit organization based in New York City, Fundación Kahlo, that was established by the Kahlo family to preserve the artist's legacy and promote Mexican, Indigenous, and Latin American art and culture. The Foundation will oversee the development, opening, and stewardship of the museum, as well as programs on Kahlo's artistic legacy and values. Chaired by Rick Miramontez, the New York public relations veteran known for representing Broadway shows, the foundation plans on establishing the Kahlo Art Prize, a biennial award recognizing visionary contemporary artists, and Las Ayudas, a grant program. 'I'm Mexican American, so there is that big connection,' Miramontez said in a phone interview. 'When I met the family and heard their goals, I thought it was a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to be of service.'
Forbes
15-04-2025
- Entertainment
- Forbes
Diego Rivera, Frida Kahlo And Paris In Two Exhibitions
Frida Kahlo, 'Frieda and Diego Rivera (Frieda y Diego Rivera),' 1931. San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, Albert M. Bender Collection, gift of Albert M. Bender. © 2025 Banco de México Diego Rivera Frida Kahlo Museums Trust, Mexico, D.F. / Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York. Frida Kahlo and Diego Rivera. And Paris. Art history's most beloved and toxic couple both spent time away from their native Mexico in Paris. Rivera (1886–1957) lived there for roughly 10 years. He loved it. He made friends with figures who, like him, would become the icons of Modern art. He fell in love–not with Kahlo. Kahlo spent two months in Paris and mostly hated it. In typical Kahlo fashion, she fell ill. Kahlo's and Rivera's experiences with Paris are brought to life in vivid, intimate detail through a pair of unconnected exhibitions on view at the Arkansas Museum of Fine Arts (Rivera) and the Art Institute of Chicago (Kahlo). Diego Rivera (Guanajuato, Mexico, 1886 - 1957, Mexico City, Mexico), 'Dos Mujeres (Two Women),' 1914, oil on canvas, 77 3/4 x 63 1/2 in., Arkansas Museum of Fine Arts Foundation Collection: Gift of Abby Rockefeller Mauzé. 1955.010. Arkansas Museum of Fine Arts The Arkansas Museum of Fine Arts in Little Rock's interest in Rivera stems from his Cubist masterpiece, Dos Mujeres (Two Women) (1914). Yes, Rivera had a Cubist phase, a phase developed in Paris during the height of the Cubist movement. Yes, the Arkansas museum possesses the painting as part of its permanent collection. The painting was gifted to AMFA by Abigail 'Babs' Rockefeller Mauzé (1903-1976), daughter of Standard Oil heir John D. Rockefeller, Jr. (1874-1960) and Abigail 'Abby' Greene Aldrich Rockefeller (1874-1948), in 1955. It was the first art donation to the Museum by a member of the Rockefeller family and the first genuinely modernist work of art to enter an Arkansas museum collection; a masterpiece at that. It is one of Rivera's largest and most important Cubist works, a picture that would be prized at The Met or the Louvre or the Prado or anywhere else in the world. Other members of the Rockefeller family later gifted artworks to the Museum, many of which are now foundational to the collection. Babs Rockefeller was the older sister of Winthrop Rockefeller, who first moved to Arkansas in 1953 for business pursuits and later became the state's governor. The painting was given to Babs by her mother. How Abby Rockefeller acquired Dos Mujeres is not precisely known. AMFA research suggests she purchased it through Frances Flynn Paine, Rivera's American sales agent and a close friend of the Rockefellers. Rivera and the Rockefellers have a storied history. Famously, in 1932, Nelson Rockefeller commissioned Rivera to paint a giant mural on the lobby wall of the RCA Building at Rockefeller Center. Into the mural, Rivera, a communist, painted a portrait Russian revolutionary Vladimir Lenin. This had not been part of Rivera's initial design. Discovering this, avowed capitalist Nelson Rockefeller asked the artist to change or remove it. No dice. Rivera was taken off the project and the mural–a treasure, a room-filling testament to artistic brilliance, a would-be, should-be, bucket list pilgrimage for art lovers worldwide–was subsequently destroyed. Despite this, many Rockefellers continued collecting and supporting Rivera throughout his career. The centerpiece of AMFA's 'Rivera's Paris' exhibition, on view through May 18, 2025, and free to visit, is Dos Mujeres (Two Women). Diego Rivera (Mexican, 1886–1957), 'Portrait of Ilya Ehrenburg,' 1915. Oil on canvas, 43 3/8 x 35 1/4 in. (110.2 x 89.5 cm). Meadows Museum, SMU, Dallas. Algur H. Meadows Collection, MM.68.12. Photography by Michael Bodycomb. As an artist, Rivera was a child prodigy. Following formal training at the Academia de San Carlos in Mexico City and showing great promise, Rivera's teacher, Gerardo Murillo, provided his pupil a letter of introduction to Spanish painter Eduardo Chicharro y Agüera. With money from a three-year study abroad grant provided by the Veracruz government and further supported financially by the sale of all 26 works he presented in his student exhibition, a 20-year-old Rivera arrived in Spain. He spent two years studying in Chicharro's Madrid studio with off hours at the Prado museum studying Velázquez, El Greco, and Goya. Rivera travelled widely throughout the country. He met Spain's famous 'master of light,' Joaquín Sorolla. In 1909, Rivera moved to Paris, at that time, a hotbed of radical artistic experimentation and the center of the Western and Modern art worlds. Cubism was at its peak. Picasso's Cubist and modernist masterpiece Les Demoiselles d'Avignon was produced in 1907. It shocked the world and remains one of the most important paintings in art history. 'I've never believed in God, but I believe in Picasso,' Diego Rivera said. He considered Picasso his 'idol.' The two met in Paris and became good friends. Rivera also befriended Amedeo Modigliani. And Piet Mondrian. Rivera's Paris circle additionally included Juan Gris, Jacques Lipchitz, and Jean Cocteau–the exhibition has a fantastic portrait of Cocteau by Rivera. Marc Chagall was there. And Matisse. Paris at the time was bursting with artists from Russian, Poland, Italy, Spain, Japan, and Latin America. Hundreds of Latin American artists like Rivera. Along with drawings and paintings by Rivera, works by his influences and contemporaries including Modigliani, Cézanne, Picasso, Chagall, Sorolla, and others are featured in 'Rivera in Paris,' providing a rich portrait of the artist's life at the time. In addition to the artworks, detailed wall text and contemporary photographs of the artists, their studios, and Paris taken at the time add delicious context. Between 1908 and 1914, Cubism was all the rage in the City of Lights. Substituting single-point perspective, Cubist artists portrayed subjects from multiple perspectives, usually using abstracted and fragmented forms. Rivera's Cubist period is little-known; this exhibition and Dos Mujeres seeks to correct that. One of the two women in Dos Mujeres is Russian artist Angelina Beloff (1879–1969). She stands at the right. She was also a Paris transplant. She and Rivera met through his Spanish artist-friend, María Gutierrez Blanchard, in Bruges, Belgium 1909. Beloff would become Rivera's common law wife in 1911, long before he met Kahlo. The other woman in Dos Mujeres, seated, is their close friend, fellow artist, and neighbor, Alma Dolores Bastián. Rivera briefly returned to Mexico in 1910-1911, a period that coincided with the Mexican Revolution. A massively successful show emboldened him financially and artistically to return to Paris. He also missed Beloff. Reunited in Paris, the couple lived together for the next 10 years, though never officially married. 'During all that time, she gave me everything a good woman can give to a man. In return, she received from me all the heartache and misery that a man can inflict upon a woman,' Rivera, as quoted in exhibition wall text, said. As Kahlo would be, Beloff was treated shabbily by Rivera. Perhaps along with Cubist theory he and Picasso commiserated over drinks on the Left Bank about their shared terrible mistreatment of women. Rivera and Beloff's relationship produced a son, Diego, who died at 14-months. This strained the couple and resulted in their separation. Rivera, typically, soon took a lover and had an on-again, off-again, multi-year relationship producing a daughter. As would be the case many years later with Kahlo, an ill-fated reconciliation with Beloff was attempted. AMFA organizers went through great pains in securing the loan of a wonderful 1914 still life with bottle by Beloff from a private collection in Mexico. Beloff ultimately moved to Mexico and had a relatively successful career there. Rivera's time in Paris coincided with the onset of World War I which brought terrible devastation to the city. Fortuitously, Rivera, Beloff, and a group of friends had left for Mallorca just prior to the war's beginning. Throughout his time in Paris, Rivera travelled widely across Europe. Shortly before leaving for good and returning to Mexico, the artist received a grant to visit Italy and saw and studied murals there. That's where he picked up the skill that would lead to his becoming the world's greatest muralist and one of its most famous artists–then and now. 'He didn't descend from the heavens fully formed as the Mexican muralist that we know him to be,' Catherine Walworth, Jackye and Curtis Finch, Jr. Curator of Drawings at the Arkansas Museum of Fine Arts, told 'Rivera in Paris' and Chicago's Kahlo in Paris exhibitions show how the two were both part of wide communities of artists, all sharing and shaping each other's work, defeating the 'Lone Genius' myth of artmaking. From the Renaissance through today, the world's greatest artists have influences, teachers, mentors, and colleagues they take direction and inspiration from. 'It's a cacophony of voices (in Paris) and (Rivera and his circle are) picking up on different influences, and some of those influences are Spanish religious paintings, El Greco, it's not always the extremely modernist sources we expect,' Walworth said. By the time Rivera returned to Mexico in 1921, he had spent most of his adulthood in Paris. 'What I love about this era, what everyone thinks of New York in the 1950s with the Abstract Expressionists being rowdy and competing with each other and hanging out at Cedar Tavern, there was a whole even wilder bunch of people in Paris doing that in the aughts and teens and twenties,' Walworth said. 'This moment is incredibly exciting, and Paris is not monolithic. It's not a story about one identity. These people came from all over the world.' Frida Kahlo, 'Self-Portrait with Cropped Hair (Autorretrato con pelo cortado),' 1940. The Museum of Modern Art, New York, Gift of Edgar Kaufmann, Jr. © 2025 Banco de México Diego Rivera Frida Kahlo Museums Trust, Mexico, D.F. / Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York. Digital Image © 2025 MoMA, N.Y. A 15-year-old Frida Kahlo first met 37-year-old Diego Rivera in 1922, the year after his return from Paris. Rivera was flush with all the currents of Modernism, gargantuan talent, career success, and stories of hobnobbing with fellow legends of the day while barnstorming around Europe. This was before the bus accident that nearly took Kahlo's life. The couple were reintroduced in 1927, entering a passionate love affair. Marriage, affairs, miscarriages, abortions, divorce, remarriage. 'Frida Kahlo's Month in Paris: A Friendship with Mary Reynolds,' on view through July 13, 2025, at the Art Institute of Chicago focuses on a pivotal period in 1939 when Kahlo resided at the Paris home of Mary Reynolds (1891–1950), an American avant-garde bookbinder, whose home was a hub for the city's artistic community. Kahlo was invited to visit Paris by André Breton, the architect of European Surrealism. He had visited Kahlo in Mexico the year prior. Rivera did not accompany her. The show illuminates the period of Kahlo's rise as an international artist and her chance meeting with Reynolds, a lesser known, but highly compelling artist and maker of innovative, one-of-a-kind book bindings. During Kahlo's first and only trip to Paris for two months early in 1939, she fell ill and was invited by Reynolds to recover at her home. This home—where Reynolds lived with long-time partner Marcel Duchamp—was a living work of art and abundantly installed with their own artworks, from unique books to paintings and sculptures from close friends and artists. In this space and in her friendship with Reynolds, Kahlo found new inspiration and set off down a new artistic path for the remainder of her career. The exhibition features extraordinary loans from public and private collections across the United States, Mexico, and Europe, and also draws on the Art Institute's own extensive Mary Reynolds Collection. Reynolds was born in Minneapolis. Following her death in 1950, Reynolds's brother, Art Institute of Chicago Trustee Frank Brookes Hubachek, collaborated with Duchamp to place her bindings and collection of books and papers at the Ryerson and Burnham Libraries of the Art Institute of Chicago. On view are 100 objects, including seven of Kahlo's most important self-portraits, a stupefying assemblage of her greatest works on loan from the greatest art museums in the world–the paintings for which she's become an icon, an unsurpassed self-portraitist, the best of the best, art history textbooks come to life–letters written by Kahlo recounting her time in Paris, book bindings, works on paper, photographs, and more. In addition to works by Kahlo and Reynolds, the exhibition also incorporates many artworks created for Reynolds by artists who socialized in her home and welcomed Kahlo into their circle, including Man Ray, Yves Tanguy, and Constantin Brâncuși. These works form a collective portrait of the Paris avant-garde during Kahlo's time in Europe on the eve of World War II, particularly the Surrealists, a generation after Rivera first arrived there.
