Receive a long-term loan The self-portrait with loose hair (1947), by Frida Kahlo, an oil painting that had not been exhibited for many years, and knowing that there were other works accessible
triggered the curating of an exhibition about the Mexican painter.
Frida: Beyond the myth The exhibition of 60 pieces, 28 of which –16 paintings, 10 drawings and two graphics– are by Kahlo, which opened on August 17 at the Dallas Museum of Art (DMA), began as a tribute to Diego Rivera’s wife, says Agustín Arteaga, director of the museum and curator of the exhibition with Sue Canterbury. However, it also represented an opportunity to Expanding knowledge of Latin American art, as well as introducing female artists, something that has characterized my management
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The present exhibition It gives visibility and depth to the knowledge of an artist who is appreciated, even revered, although in some way what is known is her myth. We wanted the public to have the opportunity to get closer to the human being, how she represents herself and how we can tell her biography through her works and the photographs that her contemporaries took of her.
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Kahlo is a very well documented and, at the same time, enigmatic painter. However, the character that she herself created has devoured her
says the art historian. “We remember her as this beautiful, seductive woman, full of antitheses. She can be enormously confident or terribly vulnerable at the same time. She can exploit this side of her image without artifice as she does in Self-portrait with loose hairwithout trying to beautify herself as in other paintings of this type. This totally independent woman was never able to overcome or separate herself from Rivera or stop depending on him.”
Organizing a Kahlo exhibition is no easy task, as it has been done many times. The DMA’s contribution is to try to humanize the artist and see her through works that are significant, where each one of them tells a moment of her biography. That is, we can tell her story through how she begins to build herself as an artist and a public person.
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Divided into several segments, the first refers to Kahlo before she met Rivera, her youth in Coyoacán, life within the family, how she begins to build her character. It includes her first self-portrait, the one she painted for her then boyfriend Alejandro Gómez Arias, as well as a drawing of her own that bears witness to the tragic tram accident that left her injured for life. It is the first time she represents herself. lying on a stretcher
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A second segment begins with the moment she meets Rivera. Photographs from their wedding day appear, the first drawings revealing an image more mexican
and her move to the United States. The only works included that are not by Kahlo are two lithographs by Rivera, for example, Frida sitting on the bed posing with her arms behind her head. Here we see an intimate Frida, not the image she constructs, but allowing herself to be seen by others, in this case, her husband.
notes Arteaga. All the photographs presented – by Nickolas Muray, Henri Cartier-Bresson and Lola Álvarez Bravo, among others – are original period prints.
At another point, Kahlo’s life in the United States is addressed, her abortion while Rivera was painting the murals in Detroit, as well as a series of drawings that are in some ways premonitory of other works and how he sees his own existence. It is a very linear sequence
the curator points out.
–How necessary is it to know the life of an artist to appreciate his work?
–In Frida’s case it is necessary, because her work is deeply autobiographical. There is this intention in the paintings. There is always a story that can be considered secret.
For Arteaga, holding an exhibition of Kahlo allows for the creation of a space for inclusion: “Frida breaks barriers, geographies, races and cults. The DMA aims to make visible many of the artists who have been invisible, relegated to the margins of history. Frida is perhaps the best example of inclusion. She is an artist who appeals to anyone in many ways: her resilience, her way of overcoming personal tragedy, her strength, how she maintains her individuality by sharing the stage with one of the most powerful men in the art world at the moment: Rivera.
Frida Kahlo’s beauty and seductive attitude create an image that is built to not go unnoticed. It is difficult to escape this magnetism; however, the most relevant thing is that we find within her life many reasons to deeply admire her.
Frida: Beyond the myth will be on display until November 17 at the Dallas Museum of Art in Texas.