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Edificio para Oficinas de la Lotería Nacional, Ciudad de México Architect: TORRES + VELÁZQUEZ, Arq. Héctor Velázquez Moreno, Arq. Ramón Torres Martínez. Colaboradores: David Muñoz y Sergio Santacruz 1974. © Image cortesy of Despacho de Arquitectos HV, S.A. de C.V. |
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Estadio Deportivo de Ciudad Universitaira, Mexico City Architect: Augusto Pérez Palacios, Jorge Bravo y Raúl Salinas. Con murales de Diego Rivera. 1949-1952. © Image cortesy of the Archivos de Arquitectos Mexicanos, UNAM.
Fabrica Automex, Lerma, Estado de México Architect: Ricardo Legorreta Colaborador: Matías Goeritz 1963. © Image cortesy of Legorreta + Legorreta. Photographer: Kati Horna.
Estadio Deportivo de Ciudad Universitaira, Mexico City Architect: Augusto Pérez Palacios, Jorge Bravo y Raúl Salinas. Con murales de Diego Rivera. 1949-1952. © Image cortesy of the Archivos de Arquitectos Mexicanos, UNAM.
Sucursal del Banco del Valle de Mexico, Mexico City Architect: Augusto H. Álvarez 1958 © Image courtesy of the Archivos de Arquitectos Mexicanos, UNAM.
Biblioteca Central de Ciudad Universitaria, Mexico City Architect: Juan O’ Gorman Colaborador. Gustavo Saavedra y Juan Martínez de Velasco. 1950-1952. © Image cortesy of the Archivos de Arquitectos Mexicanos, UNAM.
Taller de Arquitectura, Ciudad de México Architect: Agustín Hernández 1970 © Image cortesy of Agustín Hernández. |
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Centre for Fine Arts There is more to modernist architecture in Mexico than just the work of Luis Barragán, its most renowned representative. The detailed plans and impressive enlarged photographs in this exhibition offer a broad overview of architectural production in post-war Mexico. In addition, a unique series of documentary films and contemporary documents helps to flesh out this fascination evocation of the refined lines and raw functionalism of Mexican modernism. Fifteen years after the end of the Mexican Revolution in 1917, government endorsements for federal housing, educational, and health care building programs began. While the development of modern architecture in Mexico bears some noteworthy parallels to its North American and European counterparts, its trajectory highlights several unique characteristics, which challenged existing definitions modern architecture. During the post-Revolutionary period, idealization of the indigenous and the traditional symbolized attempts to reach into the past and retrieve what had been lost in the race toward modernization. Functionalism, expressionism, and other schools have left their imprint on a large number of works in which Mexican stylistic elements have been combined with European and North American techniques. The Institute of Hygiene (1925) in Popotla, Mexico, by José Villagrán García, was one of the first examples of this new national architecture. The studio designed by Juan O'Gorman in San Angel, Mexico City, for Diego Rivera and Frida Kahlo (1931-32) is a fine example of vanguard architecture built in Mexico. Mexico’s first project of high-density, low-cost housing was the Centro Urbano Alemán (1947-49), Mexico City, by Mario Pani. Perhaps the most ambitious project of modern architecture was the construction, begun in 1950, Ciudad Universitaria outside Mexico City, a complex of buildings and grounds housing the National Autonomous University of Mexico. A cooperative venture, the project was directed by Carlos Lazo, Enrique Del Moral, and Pani. In the new campus the art of the Mexican muralists was incorporated into the architecture, beginning with Rivera’s relief in the new Estadio Olímpico Universitario (1952), by Augusto Pérez Palacios, Jorge Bravo, and Raúl Salinas. The Rectory (1952), by Pani, del Moral, and Salvador Ortega Flores, includes murals by David Alfaro Siqueiros. Perhaps the best integration of mural art with the new architecture is seen in the University Library, by O’Gorman, Gustavo Saavedra, and Juan Martínez de Velasco, which features a monumental mosaic design on the facade by O’Gorman. Another architect of note is Felix Candela, who designed the expressionistic church Nuestra Señora de los Milagros. This was a period of diverse experimentation and even structural innovation, as seen in the thin-shell concrete structures by the Spanish architect Felix Candela, such as his Church of the Miraculous Virgin (1953) in Mexico City and the Cosmic Ray Pavilion (1952) on the university campus. The integration of art and architecture became a constant in Mexican modern architecture, which can be seen in the courtyard of the Anthropology Museum (c. 1963-65) in Mexico City, by Pedro Ramírez Vázquez. Another side of Mexican modern architecture is represented in the work of Luis Barragán. The houses that he designed in the 1950s and ’60s explored a way to reconcile the lessons of Le Corbusier with the Spanish colonial tradition. This new synthesis created a completely original Modernist architecture that is uniquely adapted to its environment. Ricardo Legorreta’s Camino Real Hotel (1968) in Mexico City is a composition of courtyards and roof terraces within the walls of one downtown block. This work is indebted to the work of Barragán, applying his methods on a larger public scale. In Mexico the Brutalism of Teodoro González de León’s Music Conservatory (1994) and the Neo-Barragánesque library (1994) by Legorreta coexist in the new National Centre of the Arts with the work of a younger generation of architects who are influenced by contemporary architecture in Europe and North America. The School of Theatre (1994), by TEN Arquitectos, and the School of Dance (1994), by Luis Vicente Flores, express a modernity that reinforces the government’s desire to present a new image of Mexico as an industrialized country with a global presence. Enrique Norten, the founder of TEN Arquitectors, was presented with the “Legacy Award” by the Smithsonian Institution for his contributions to the US arts and culture through his work. In 2005 he received the “Leonardo da Vinci” World Award of Arts by the World Cultural Council and was the first Mies van der Rohe Award recipient for Latin American Architecture. The refined work of Alberto Kalach and Daniel Alvarez stands out both in their numerous residences as well as in the San Juan de Letrán Station (1994) in Mexico City. The residential work of José Antonio Aldrete-Haas in Mexico City shows both the influence of the attenuated Modernism of the great Portuguese architect Álvaro Siza and a continuity with the lessons of Barragán. Other notable and emerging contemporary architects include Mario Schjetnan, Michel Rojkind, Tatiana Bilbao, Isaac Broid and Bernardo Gómez-Pimienta, Juan C. Ordaz Coppel and Jacinto Avalos from Avalos Arquitectos y Asociados with award winning works in Mexico, USA and Europe. Curators of the exhibition are Jose Castillo, Wonne Ickx.
Juan Sordo Madaleno, Edificio Palmas, 1975.
Edificio Jaysour, Mexico City Architect: Augusto H. Álvarez, Arquitecto colaborador: Octavio Sánchez Álvarez. 1961-1964. © Image courtesy of the Archivos de Arquitectos Mexicanos, UNAM. |
Augustin Hérnandez, Heroico Colegio Militar, 1975. |
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Saturnino Herrán (1887-1918), La ofrenda, 1913, Óleo sobre tela / oil on canvas, 183 x 210 cm, © Museo Nacional de Arte, INBA. |
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Hermenegildo Bustos (1832-1907), Autorretrato, 1891, Óles sobre Lámina, © Museo Nacional de Arte, INBA. |
Figura con tres caras, ca 250-700, Teotihuacan (atribución), Cerámica horneada con restos de pintur, 18 x 2 x 9 cm, © Museo Universitario de Ciencias y Arte, UNAM, Donada por Ricardo Hecht, 1964.
Sergio de la Torre, New Dragon City (detail), 2008, film still, from El Horizonte del Topo, The Mole's Horizon.
Jorge González Camarena (1908-1980), El perico,s/f, © Museo Nacional de Arte, INBA.
Roberto Montenegro (1887-1968), La primera dama, 1942, Óleo sobre cartón, 27.3 x 36 cm, © Colección Andrés Blaisten.
Yvonne Venegas, From the series The most beautiful brides from Baja, California, 2002, Collection Centro de la Imagen, México, from Mundos Mexicanos, 25 Contemporary Photographers.
Ramón Cano Manilla (1888-1974), El globo, 1930, Óleo sobre tela / oil on canvas, 127 x 143 cm, © Museo Nacional de Arte, INBA.
Tina Modotti (1985-1942), Tehuana con jicalpextle, s/f, Plata sobre gelatina, 25.3 x 20.3 cm, © Museo Nacional de Arte, INBA. |
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Centre for Fine Arts Imágenes del mexicano spans the four great periods of Mexican history: the pre-Columbian era, the colonial period, independence, and modern, 20th century Mexico. The Centre for Fine Arts is bringing together some 150 works of art (paintings, sculptures, photographs, graphic works, and films) by unknown and well-known artists, both Mexicans and Europeans who travelled to Mexico. The highlights include a selection of pre-Columbian sculptures, pictures by 18th century European travellers such as Claudio Linati, who developed a typology of Mexican types, popular portraits by Hermenegildo Bustos and José María Estrada, paintings by modern masters such as Diego Rivera, David Alfaro Siqueiros, José Clemente Orozco, and Frida Kahlo, excerpts from films by, among others, Sergey Eisenstein (¡Que viva México!), and photographs by Tina Modotti and Manuel Álvarez Bravo. Imágenes del mexicano is the centrepiece of the México Festival. The exhibition presents the image of "the Mexican", as seen through the eyes of Mexican and foreign artists. Portraits of unknown and powerful Mexicans, images of ethnic minorities, and satirical works illustrate the artistic heritage and political and social aspirations of an ever-changing country, from the pre-Columbian era to the 20th century. The works in Imágenes del mexicano come from private collections and from the most important Mexican collections: the Museo Nacional de Arte, the Museo Nacional de Antropología, the Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México, the Museo Franz Mayer, and the Museo de Arte de Tlaxcala. The exhibition includes a great diversity of portraits, ranging from nationalist images of the powerful and the authorities to depictions of anonymous individuals, workers, and ethnic minorities. Critical and satirical images offer an interpretation of what is seen as typically "Mexican". These varied portrayals form primary documentary sources for their times, evoking the visual culture of various periods of Mexican history and throwing light on the political and social aspirations of different social groups. The portrayal of Mexicans oscillates between reality and fiction, between social compassion and national identity. The works of art tell a story to others, but also to themselves. In this way, Imágenes del mexicano can be seen as a visual narrative of the mythologies about a people. This approach ensures that Imágenes del mexicano is not just a fascinating investigation of the evolution of the "Mexican identity", but also a reflection both of how a people presents itself and of how it is seen through the eyes of outsiders. It is not by chance that the exhibition is taking place in 2010, the year in which Mexico celebrates both the Centenario (the centenary of the Mexican Revolution) and the Bicentenario (the bicentenary of Mexican independence). Mexico is marking this double anniversary, not just with festivities in the country itself, but also in Europe. And Mexico has chosen to situate the centre of gravity of the European programme in the Brussels Centre for Fine Arts. The exhibition is just one part of an extensive México Festival that includes no fewer than five exhibitions: the other four are devoted to •Frida Kahlo y su mundo•, architecture (•Mexican Modernisms•), contemporary Mexican photography (•Mundos mexicanos•), and contemporary art (•El horizonte del topo•). The festival also features concerts, theatre, literature, and film. The Belgian public, moreover, will also have a unique opportunity to see Mexican popular culture close up in an evening of Lucha Libre. This spectacular form of wrestling, hugely popular in Mexico, is just one of many not-to-be-missed events in the festival. Exhibition Curators are Dafne Cruz Porchini & Luis Adrián Vargas. The exhibition is organized by BOZAR EXPO, Museo Nacional de Arte México, Conaculta - Consejo Nacional para la Cultura y las Artes. Other exhibitions included in the Mexico Festival are Mundos Mexicanos, 25 Contemporary Photographers, El Horizonte del Topo, The Mole's Horizon, and Alebrijes (February 11-April 25, 2010). Mundos Mexicanos, 25 Contemporary Photographers (February 11-April 11, 2010) keys in on Mexico's deep-rooted tradition of photography as a means of expression. The innovating impulse given in the second half of the 20th century by photographers such as Manuel and Lola Álvarez Bravo, Agustín Jiménez, Gabriel Figueroa, Nacho López, and Mariana Yampolsky put Mexican photography on the international map, where it is still very strongly present today. The Mundos mexicanos: 25 Contemporary Photographers exhibition presents a number of the most significant works of recent decades. Roughly half of these belong to the collections of the Centro de la Imagen, which was established in 1994 with the mission of acquiring photographs and promoting photography in Mexico. El Horizonte del Topo, The Mole's Horizon, featuring contemporary works, is a video exhibition that uses amnesia as an antidote to the ideological epic of official Mexico. It includes works by Miguel Monroy, Edgardo Aragón, Daniel Guzmán, Jorge Satorre, Ilán Lieberman, Teresa Margolles, Yoshua Okón, Sergio de la Torre, and Francis Alÿs. Alebrijes is an installation in Horta Hall. Alebrijes are figures representing animals, both wild and domestic, and fantastic creatures, usually made up of hybrid or imaginary components. They are made out of branches of the copal (pine) tree and papier mâché. After being patiently put together, they are painstakingly painted by hand in bright colours, with weird and wonderful motifs dreamt up by the artists. Each piece is unique and is signed.
Tina Modotti (1885-1942), Dos tehuanas con jicalpextle, s/f, Plata sobre gelatina, 21,2 x 15,6 cm, © Museo Nacional de Arte, INBA.
Image from Alebrijes.
Alfredo Ramos Martínez (1871-1946), Dolores del Río a los 11 años de edad, s/f / n. d., Pastel sobre papel / pastel on paper, 160 x 180 cm, © Museo Nacional de Arte, INBA. |
Diego Rivera, La Molendera, 1923. |
José María Zepeda de Estrada, Retrato de Francisco Torres, 1846 © Museo Nacional de Arte, INBA. |
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El Greco, San Juan Evangelista © Toledo, Museo del Greco. |
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El Greco, Saint Veronica holding the Veil (traduction of the National gallery) or Veronica’s Veil, Ca. 1580, oil on canvas, Toledo, Museo de Santa Cruz (depsito del la JCCM).
El Greco, Saint James the Mayor, Ca. 1610-1614, oil on canvas, Toledo, Museo del Greco.
El Greco San Pedro en lágrimas, The Tears of Saint Peter, Ca.1587-1620 oil on canvas Toledo, Museo del Greco.
El Greco, The Crucifixion, 1610-1614, oil on canvas, Toledo, Museo de Santa Cruz (Depósito de la Parroquia de San Nicolas de Bari, Toledo). |
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Centre for Fine Arts Regarded today as one of the founders of the Spanish School of painting, El Greco has not, however, always enjoyed that lofty status. At the time of his death in Toledo in 1614, Europe was wildly enthusiastic about the then fashionable naturalism of the Caravaggesque style, poles apart from his own brilliant Mannerism. El Greco’s work soon went out of fashion and remained relatively neglected down the centuries — until 1908, when art historian Manuel Bartolomé Cossío devoted a key monograph to him. The El Greco craze took off immediately. In 1910 a discerning art collector, the Marqués de la Vega-Inclán, even established a museum in his honour in Toledo. The painter’s fame, accordingly, flourished anew, as rapidly as it had been extinguished. In addition to outlining the key role played by those responsible for this spectacular rediscovery, the exhibition presents a fascinating overview of the painter’s artistic development via a unique selection of outstanding works, including the stunning •The Disrobing of Christ• and the striking •The Tears of Saint Peter•. El Greco (1541-1614), Cretan-born painter, sculptor, and architect, settled in Spain and is regarded as the first great genius of the Spanish School. He was known as El Greco (the Greek), but his real name was Domenikos Theotocopoulos; and it was thus that he signed his paintings throughout his life, always in Greek characters, and sometimes followed by Kres (Cretan). Little is known of his youth, and only a few works survive by him in the Byzantine tradition of icon painting, notably the recently discovered Dormition of the Virgin (Church of the Koimesis tis Theotokou, Syros). In 1566 he is referred to in a Cretan document as a master painter; soon afterwards he went to Venice (Crete was then a Venetian possession), then in 1570 moved to Rome. The miniaturist Giulio Clovio, whom he met there, described him as a pupil of Titian, but of all the Venetian painters Tintoretto influenced him most, and Michelangelo's impact on his development was also important. Among the surviving works of his Italian period are two paintings of the Purification of the Temple (Minneapolis Institute of Arts, and National Gallery, Washington, D.C.), a much-repeated theme, and the portrait of Giulio Clovio (Museo di Capodimonte, Naples). By 1577 he was at Toledo, where he remained until his death, and it was there that he matured his characteristic style in which figures elongated into flame-like forms and usually painted in cold, eerie, bluish colors express intense religious feeling. The commission that took him to Toledo — the high altarpiece of the church of S. Domingo el Antiguo — was gained through Diego de Castilla, Dean of Canons at Toledo Cathedral, whom El Greco had met in Rome. The central part of the altarpiece, a 4-m. high canvas of •The Assumption of the Virgin• (Art Institute of Chicago, 1577), was easily his biggest work to date, but he carried off the dynamic composition triumphantly. A succession of great altarpieces followed throughout his career, the two most famous being El Espolio (The Disrobing of Christ) (Toledo Cathedral, 1577-79) and The Burial of Count Orgaz (S. Tomé, Toledo, 1586-88). These two mighty works convey the awesomeness of great spiritual events with a sense of mystic rapture, and in his late work El Greco went even further in freeing his figures from earth-bound restrictions; The Adoration of the Shepherds (Prado, Madrid, 1612-1614), painted for his own tomb, is a prime example. El Greco excelled also as a portraitist, mainly of ecclesiastics (Felix Paravicino, Boston Museum, 1609) or gentlemen, although one of his most beautiful works is a portrait of a lady (Pollock House, Glasgow, c. 1577-80), traditionally identified as a likeness of Jeronima de las Cuevas, his common-law wife. He also painted two views of Toledo (Metropolitan Museum, New York, and Museo del Greco, Toledo), both late works, and a mythological painting, Laocoön (National Gallery, Washington, c. 1610), that is unique in his oeuvre. The unusual choice of subjects is perhaps explained by the local tradition that Toledo had been founded by descendants of the Trojans. El Greco also designed complete altar compositions, working as architect and sculptor as well as painter, for instance at the Hospital de la Caridad, Illescas (1603). Pacheco, who visited El Greco in 1611, refers to him as a writer on painting, sculpture, and architecture. He had a proud temperament, conceiving of himself as an artist-philosopher rather that a craftsman, and had a lavish life-style, although he had little success in securing the royal patronage he desired and seems to have had some financial difficulties near the end of his life. His workshop turned out a great many replicas of his paintings, but his work was so personal that his influence was slight, his only followers of note being his son Jorge Manuel Theotocopouli and Luis Tristán. Interest in his art revived at the end of the 19th century, and with the development of Expressionism in the 20th century he came into his own. The strangeness of his art has inspired various theories, for example that he was mad or suffered from astigmatism, but his rapturous paintings make complete sense as an expression of the religious fervour of his adopted country. The highlight of the exhibition is El Greco’s final series of Apostles, his artistic testament: a complete, astonishingly modern series, remarkable for its totally free forms and its extraordinarily bright colours. After this visit to the Centre for Fine Arts the series will return to the Museo de El Greco in Toledo, which it will never leave again. Curators of the exhibition are Ana Carmen Lavín Berdonces and José Redondo Cuesta.
El Greco, The Disrobing of Christ, 1577-79, Oil on canvas, 285 x 173 cm, Sacristy of the Cathedral, Toledo.
El Greco, The Holy Family with Saint Anne, Ca. 1585, oil on canvas, Toledo, Museo de Santa Cruz depósito de la Parroquia de San Nicóla de Bari). |
El Greco, Saint Thomas, Ca. 1610-1614, oil on canvas, Toledo, Museo del Greco. |
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Frida Kahlo in her garden at Coyoacán, 1952 , Photograph : Berenice Kolko, © Banco de México. Fideicomiso Museos Diego Rivera y Frida Kahlo. |
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Frida Kahlo, El camión (The Bus), 1929, © Colección Museo Dolores Olmedo, Xochimilco, México. |
Frida Kahlo, Unos cuantos piquetitos (A Few Small Nips), 1935, © Colección Museo Dolores Olmedo, Xochimilco, México.
Frida Kahlo, Mi nana y yo (My nurse and I), 1937, © Colección Museo Dolores Olmedo, Xochimilco, México.
Frida Kahlo painting the portrait of her father, 1951, Photograph : Gisèle Freund © Banco de México. Fideicomiso Museos Diego Rivera y Frida Kahlo.
Frida Kahlo, La columna rota (The Broken Column), 1944, Oil on masonite, 39.8 x 30.5 cm, © Collection Museo Dolores Olmedo, Xochimilco, México.
Frida Kahlo, Retrato de Luther Burbank (Portrait of Luther Burbank), 1932, © Colección Museo Dolores Olmedo, Xochimilco, México. |
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Centre for Fine Arts By XAVIER FLAMENT Frida Kahlo’s disconcerting gaze stares out from the Museo Olmedo collection, the world’s largest (private) collection of her work. 19 paintings, an etching, six drawings, and a number of photographs bear witness to her brilliant contribution to the symbolist and surrealist movements. And to her life, a hard one from the outset. A tragic bus accident at just 17 led to a series of operations throughout her life, at a time when medicine was just feeling its way. Several miscarriages and a turbulent married life with Diego Rivera, the great painter of the Revolution, contributed to her works’ power and extraordinary beauty. The exhibition is organised in the framework of the Mexico Festival. Mexico celebrates a double anniversary in 2010: 200 years of independence and 100 years of revolution. On this occasion, the Centre for Fine Arts presents a large festival with art, theatre, dance, film, music … from Mexico. Frida's unfathomable gaze They present a summary of her artistic career, from one of her earliest paintings, the Portrait of Alicia Galante (1927), with its alabaster features that one might take to be the work of Modigliani, to the emblematic Self-portrait with Monkey (1945). From the freshness of a newly-discovered talent — Diego Rivera straight away recognised "a vital sensuality further enriched by a pitiless, though sensitive, power of observation" — to the brusque expression of a hypersensitive sincerity. Frida, in traditional costume, seems here to belong to the animal kingdom that surrounds her, the little monkey that Diego gave her embracing her with his paws alongside the xoloitzcuintle, the hairless dog that is emblematic of Mexico's Nahuatl past, and a hunched pagan idol. And always that piercing gaze turned towards the spectator, feigning indifference. Frida Kahlo kept herself under constant observation, ever since the tragic bus accident in 1925 that left her — with a broken spine, pelvis, and ribs — bedridden in a corset. A tragedy that underlay her painting and was a recurring theme in her works, as in the terrible Broken Column of 1944. For nine months, a mirror placed over her bed reflected back the image of her own suffering. She seems to have learned much from her father, a German immigrant who was a professional photographer and who passed on to her his sense of composition and skill in retouching. Some have also seen in all this the obsessive expression of a narcissism permanently wounded by a mother — of mixed race, herself a painter with links to the surrealist movement — who rejected her at an early age. My Nurse and I (1937) offers a terrifying vision of this: we see Frida Kahlo, with a fixed stare and the body of a baby, in the arms of a nurse with skin like volcanic rock and the face of an idol. Drops of mother's milk stand out on her voluptuous breasts, but do not penetrate the artist's inert lips. At the bottom of the painting is a scroll for a message like those of the ex-votos that appear on a wall of her Casa Azul (Blue House) in Coyoacán, but no prayer is written on it. It is as if it were Without Hope— the title, in fact, of another painting from 1945, in which she weeps, confined to bed, a funnel in her mouth through which are being stuffed a number of dead animals, fish, etc. In a recent work the psychoanalyst Salomon Grimberg has a field day with this theme, bringing together previously unpublished confessions made by the artist to her psychologist friend Olga Campos and a psychological evaluation of her carried out in 1950. Tests of Frida Kahlo's personality, he observes, suggest dysthymia (chronic agitation) with, overlaid, recurrent bouts of severe depression and of chronic pain syndrome and with major and profound damage in a narcissistic personality. The struggle within her, he believes, between her sense of greatness and her lack of self-esteem, had the effect of seriously weakening her, so that she became increasingly dependent on others to try to shore up that wavering self-esteem. In Grimberg's opinion, this struggle, from which she could only have found a way out by tackling it from inside, never came to an end. Despite the wealth of her interior world and of that around her, Kahlo, he believes, lived without coming to terms with her extreme dependence, condemned to see others as untrustworthy, just as she judged herself to be incomplete. Be that as it may, the extraordinary power of the work resists interpretative patterns of all kinds, whether those of in-depth psychology or those based on the various events that bruised her throughout her life. Diego's infidelities, including with Frida's own sister, her miscarriages, her terrifying operations, her various affairs (including one with Trotsky), and her liberated sexuality all lend themselves, it is true, to conjecture. In The Circle a woman's body is disintegrating; Henry Ford Hospital and Frida and the Abortion (1932) clinically present her inability to have children. In one work, the end of Diego's love shows through in the background in those cold Detroit factories where the famous muralist worked to commission; in the other, her creative talent seems to substitute for the dead foetus in the form of a third arm that ends in a womb-shaped palette. Her yearning for motherhood is equally present in the opulent forms of the mixed-race Eva Frederick and in the empathic gaze of Doña Rosita Morillo, her patron's mother. But her work is not that easily penetrated. With its brightly-coloured brushstrokes, it resists – as did the artist herself when André Breton wanted to number her among the surrealists. "Those artistic imbeciles in Paris," she remarked. "They took me for a surrealist. It's not true. I have never painted a dream. What I depicted was my reality." The Mask (1945), finally, refers all commentators to the unfathomable ambiguity of the human condition. And of Frida, the artist. Her last words: "I hope the exit will be joyful … and I hope never to return"; her last painting: Viva la vida.
Frida Kahlo, Autorretrato con changuito (Self-Portrait with Small Monkey), 1945, © Collection Museo Dolores Olmedo, Xochimilco, México. |
Frida Kahlo, Frida y el aborto (Frida and the Abortion), 1932, © Colección Museo Dolores Olmedo, Xochimilco, México. |
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