Sunday, May 14, 2017

Mirror, Mirror: Photographs of Frida Kahlo

It’s the story told by others that makes you a legend and so it was with Frida Kahlo (1907-1954).  Some artists become legends in their own time and some become legends long afterwards but few turn themselves into legends.  The closest we come to it today is the persona that we choose to give ourselves on Face Book.  I am sure Frida would have loved this vehicle of social media where everyone could have thrilled to her adventures.

The exhibition “Mirror, Mirror: Photographs of Frida Kahlo was originated by, and most of the photographs have been collected and lent by Spencer Throckmorton, who at one time was an art dealer in Santa Fe and is now located in New York.   At present “Mirror, Mirror” is on view at the Spanish Colonial Museum in Santa Fe, New Mexico and will remain there until October 29. An image of 1944 by Lola Alvarez Bravo suggests her obsession  with her own image and gives the title to the show.


You might say I have more than a passing acquaintance with the exhibition since my wife, Penelope Hunter-Stiebel, is the guest curator!  I have spoken before about seeing a show in more than one venue because at each institution, in each location, the curator has put their own spin on it. 

Frida’s father was a photographer so Frida was used to posing for photographs and she soon found it was an excellent way of promoting herself.    She had a life of suffering starting with polio at the age of 6 and became disabled in a bus accident at the age of 18 which led to a life of pain and many operations, totaling 30 by the time of her death at the age of 47.  The accident squelched her hopes of medical school and when she was bedbound she discovered an outlet in painting.

Frida was no wallflower and threw herself fervently into whatever she started.  After she had painted for just a short while it is said that she stood below the scaffolding where the already famous Diego Rivera was painting a mural and insisted that he descend to critique her work.  He was not only impressed with her paintings but he was impressed with her.  He was a famed womanizer but found that it would not do just to have her, he had to marry her. They wed  in 1929 when she was 22 and he 20 years older.  Here an image of Diego examining her work as she paints a self-portrait by Bernard Silberstein in the early 1940’s.


The exhibition is divided into categories such as - Diego and Frida - Frida the Painter - Emergence of an Icon - Intimate Frida - Heroine of Pain and Casa Azul.  The latter has a section without images of Frida but rather color studies of her home where she grew up and lived until she died.  These images were taken by William Frej, a Santa Fe photographer who has turned professional.  One of my favorites here is of her worktable at the Casa Azul with the window.  I remember visiting George O’Keeffe’s home in Abiquiu and finding her studio the most fascinating.


I don’t know if I would call Frida a discriminating lover but for one thing she did not make much of a differentiation between men or women and here is a picture of one of her closest friends the California artist Emmy Lou Packard taken by Diego himself in 1941.


The section Heroine of Pain is set in a separate room with good reason and I had to force myself to enter a second time.  In my opinion it is more important to put a warning for parents to be aware of an image such as that by Juan Guzman shortly before Frieda died than the ones you often see posted because of a nude image!


To end where the exhibition began there is a poster size photo of Frida at the entrance with a sign suggesting that the visitor take a selfie with the legend herself.  Propped on the sign is a stuffed monkey since Frida often walked around with her live monkey on her shoulder.  Here is an image of Frida and her curator of the moment.


If you are interested in Frida Kahlo and her hometown of Mexico City there is a trip being organized from September 22-26.  It will go beyond the myth surrounding her and you will discover Frida’s world.  To get all the details please contact the tour organizer Ellen Bradbury-Ried  (bradbury@recursos.org)  or email me (gerald@stiebel.com) and I can send them to you.  But hurry reservations, close at the end of the month.

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