frida kahlo & diego rivera in photography portraits of a legendary … · frida kahlo &...
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www.artef.com
ArteF
Frida Kahlo & Diego Rivera in Photography Portraits of a Legendary Couple
January 18 – March 15, 2008
Loomis Dean, Diego Rivera, 1940s
www.artef.com
ArteF
Press release No 19 Zurich, January 2008 Title of Exhibition Frida Kahlo & Diego Rivera in Photography Portraits of a Legendary Couple Exhibition January 18 – March 15, 2008 Exhibition Place ArteF Fine Art Photography Gallery Splügenstrasse 11 8002 Zurich Opening hours Tuesday - Friday, 1 am – 6 pm Saturday, 11 am – 4 pm Press contact ArteF Fine Art Photography Gallery Tel. +41 43 817 66 40 E-Mail: [email protected]
www.artef.com
ArteF
Frida Kahlo & Diego Rivera in Photography Portraits of a Legendary Couple
January 18 – March 15, 2008 ArteF Fine Art Photography Gallery begins the new year with an exhibition dedicated to one of the most famous artist couples of the 20th century: Frida Kahlo and Diego Rivera – the dove and the elephant, as they were also named in allusion to their dissimilar appearances. Friends and contemporaries like Florence Arquin, Fritz Bach, Lucienne Bloch, Lola Alvarez Bravo, Imogen Cunningham, Enrique Diaz, Gisele Freund, Héctor García, Juan Guzman, Fritz Henle, Antonio Kahlo, Loomis Dean, Leo Matiz, Tina Modotti, Nickolas Muray, Emmy Lou Packard, Diego Rivera, Bernard Silberstein and Carl Van Vechten document the 25 years of the shared life and work of this extraordinary pair. For the first time in a public exhibition, ArteF presents an extremely rare vintage print of Trotsky and Diego Rivera. They were photographed by Fritz Bach, a Swiss communist, who in 1937 met Leo Trotsky and Diego Rivera in person in Mexico. This photographic rarity comes from the personal collection of the artist André Breton. Frida Kahlo (1907 – 1954) is now the most famous painter from Mexico, if not the whole of Latin America. Her paintings were officially pronounced by the Mexican government as “national cultural property”. Her eventful life has undoubtedly contributed to her legend: her illness (polio and a tragic bus accident, the effects from which she suffered her entire life), her marriage to Diego Rivera, her revolutionary enthusiasm and a passionate nationalism. She put up her hair in the style of indigenous women, preferred traditional clothes and wore native home-made jewellery. Frida Kahlo therefore earned a reputation as an artist as the “Painter of Pain”. In her paintings and self-portraits she chose her own life as the central theme – her chronic illness, but also her marriage problems. During her lifetime, Frida stood in the shadow of her husband in terms of her art. Today she is far more popular than him. Diego Rivera (1886-1957) was the most famous painter in Mexico during his lifetime. He achieved world fame through his unmistakeable murals – wall paintings with political motifs –, which he created from 1922 mainly in Mexico and the United States. Until his death Rivera was a dedicated communist and made a major contribution by acquiring a Mexican visa and accommodation for Leo Trotsky. In 1938, he worked with Trotsky and André Breton on the ‘Manifesto for an Independent Revolutionary Art’. Towards the end of his life Rivera returned to canvas painting. In many of his paintings from this time he drew on the results of political and personal disappointments and misfortunes, including his eventful relationship with Frida Kahlo.