An exhibition presented in the Mexican capital shed light on the life of the artist, who died seventy years ago at the age of 47from pulmonary embolism.
For the 70th anniversary of the death of its most famous artist on July 13, 1954, Mexico has focused on presenting previously unseen aspects of Frida Kahlo , who has become an icon celebrated worldwide for both her work and her personality. The Casa Azul ("blue house") in the Coyoacan neighborhood of Mexico City, where Frida lived for thirty-six of her forty-seven years, remains a seemingly inexhaustible source of knowledge about the artist and her family.
"We have eighteen works by Frida, but, above all, we have all the archives, whether it be her extensive correspondence, her carefully annotated books, her collections of Mexican popular and pre-Hispanic art or even the photos, including those of her father ," lists Perla Labarthe, the director of this museum, today managed by a cultural fund, administered by the Bank of Mexico.
The exhibition entitled "A place full of places: Casa Azul", which the establishment presents, reconstructs what this 800 square meter home was for Frida Kahlo: "A refuge to heal her multiple pains, a home with the muralist Diego Rivera [1886-1957] , an ideological declaration of her political commitments and a meeting point with her artist or activist friends who came to visit her" , adds the director.
The two hundred pieces on display, including about fifteen unpublished ones, are largely from the "treasures of the Casa Azul", these boxes locked away for almost half a century in the two bathrooms of the house, which were only opened and catalogued in 2003. They show the childhood of Frida who wanted to become a doctor and played with a microscope; the handicap that accompanied her all her life; her love for Mexican culture.
One room is dedicated to the transformation of the house into a museum in 1958 by the poet and museo-grapher Carlos Pellicer (1897-1977), under the supervision of Diego Rivera who had imagined it as "a museum dedicated to her work and which will bear her name". "A tribute to this brilliant woman whom I loved and admired the most in life" , wrote the muralist in 1955.
Seen in France in Le Monde www.vwart.com
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