The exhibition “Third Eye. Costantini Collection in Malba” includes two wonderful oil paintings Frida Kahlo –“Self-portrait with monkey and parrot” (1942) and “Diego and I” (1949)-, exhibited in a kind of semi-dark chapel, together with an outstanding documentary set of photos, letters and personal belongings of the artist, from the archive of Mexican critics Rachel Tibol. “Diego y yo” (30 x 22.4 cm.) is considered the last bust self-portrait made by the artist. She cries Frida, for the umpteenth infidelity of her adored one, and she shows on her forehead the face of Diego Rivera with three eyes, painted above his bushy eyebrows that shelter his sad gaze. The piece set the record for Latin American art in 2021, when Eduardo F. Costantini bought it remotely $34.9 million for your personal collection.
the obsession of Kahlo by Diego Rivera, whom she met when she was a schoolgirl and he was painting a mural in her school’s auditorium, had already manifested herself in “Self-portrait as a Tehuana” (1943), also called “Diego in my thoughts” because he has her twice-husband painted on the forehead, as a third eye. This painting, among many others by the artist and others, was exhibited at Fundación Proa in 1999 in the “Gelman Collection” exhibition. Likewise, “Thinking of Death” (1943) is another painting in which Kahlo used the resource of the third eye, this time as a skull in the middle of a landscape on her forehead.
Frida there is only one
Famous for her dramatic pictorial work and for her love affairs, marriages and illnesses, Frida Kahlo (Mexico, 1907-1954) was the daughter of a Mexican of Spanish-indigenous descent and a German immigrant of Romanian-Jewish origin. She inherited the beauty of her mother and the artistic sensitivity of her father, a renowned photographer. She was born, lived and died in Casa Azul in the Coyoacán neighborhood of Mexico City, today the Frida Kahlo Museum. It has their imprint -dresses, jewelry, toys, documents, popular art, indigenous objects, furniture, crutches, wheelchairs- and it is surrounded by a hundred-year-old garden with tropical plants. Over time, Rivera had an attached pink house built; they were joined by an internal bridge and each one had a key to prevent visits.
Frida had polio as a child and her right leg was thinner than the left. Then, in 1925, at the age of 18, she had an accident when she was traveling on a bus that was hit by a tram. The handrail of the vehicle went through her and her pelvis was shattered and she was unable to have children, her right foot was disabled, her leg was fractured, her spine was injured. She underwent endless treatments and more than 30 operations that forced her to rest for a long time; she never fully recovered. She then began to develop her natural artistic ability, with watercolors given to her by her father and a special easel commissioned by her mother. She frida she painted while she partially recovered. After producing an interesting number of pieces of her own, her friends urged her to show them to the masters. When Frida brought her paintings to Rivera in 1927, he remembered the little girl who had impacted him years before. That was the beginning of the turbulent relationship that dominated both of them; she was beautiful and he was big and unattractive.
Discovery
For much of the last century, the so-called “holy trinity” –Diego Rivera, Jose Clemente Orozco, David Alfaro Siqueiros (whose “Plastic Exercise” can be seen in the Bicentennial Museum) – of the Mexican School was synonymous with the art of that country; For example, the prominent critic Marta Traba never mentioned Frida in her brainy books. Her rediscovery went hand in hand with an exhibition in 1983 at the National Museum of Art in Mexico. More than 90 pieces were exhibited -oil paintings, drawings, watercolors, pastels and graphic work-, accompanied by some 40 photographs that revealed a large part of her biography, from childhood to the posthumous tribute at the Palace of Fine Arts where she was veiled under the Communist Party flag.
Her image and figure began to grow even more globally after the release of the film “Frida, Naturaleza Viva” (1983) by Paul Leduc. The Mexican filmmaker did not keep anything from Frida: physical and psychological tears, political preferences, stormy love affairs with men (León Trotsky, Isamu Noguchi) and women, addictions. There were also excesses and infidelities of hers twice her husband Diego (1929-1939 and 1940-1954). They separated for the first time after the affair of her younger sister Cristina with Diego and, although they got back together, they continued their extramarital affairs. In 2002, a new film about Kahlo was released based on the biography of the historian Hayden Herrera. “Frida: nuances of a passion” starred Salma Hayek and contributed to multiplying the painter’s knowledge.
Far from images of oppressed masses, revolutionary leaders, peasant uprisings, crowds in struggle, which characterized the work of the famous Mexican muralists, such as Rivera, Frida Kahlo’s painting challenges observers for its emotional autobiographical cut and for its intense rawness, like the one displayed in “My Birth” (1932). This image, which shows the baby artist emerging from her mother’s spread legs, belongs to singer Madonna, who owns five Frida paintings in her collection.
Precisely, a remarkable rawness and honesty stain the work of Kahlo, who struggled to overcome her physical limitations, leading to a full and creative life. Rather than surreal or naïve (as some call it), her pictorial work intensely and imaginatively describes the construction of the artist as a character, her story of suffering and overcoming her, the use of traditional indigenous clothing and the vindication of indigenous peoples. originating.
Diego once said that he considered that Frida had more talent than him; It is difficult to confirm such an assertion, but it is true that the Latin American art record marked by “Diego y yo” superseded the one held by Diego Rivera for the mural “Baile en Tehuantepec” (1928), which Costantini also bought for 15.7 million dollars in 2016.
Third Eye/ The Exposure
Beyond the magnetism of Frida’s paintings, visitors should be sure to check out the powerful exhibition “Third Eye. Costantini Collection in Malba”, under the care of María Amalia García, chief curator of Malba. The staging, which includes more than 220 iconic works of Latin American art, stages the dialogue between pieces from the Malba Collection and that of Eduardo F. Costantini, founder and honorary president of the museum. Thus, recent acquisitions by Costantini for his private collection are also exhibited as loans, such as the documentary archive of Raquel Tibol and works by Wifredo Lam, Vicente do Rego Monteiro, Alice Rahon, Mario Carreño, Carlos Mérida, Alejandro Otero. These, among others, converse with historical and recent pieces from Malba -which turns 21 this month- such as the paintings of Tarsila do Amaral, Roberto Matta, Emilio Pettoruti, Torres-Garcia, and Rafael Barradas. with “Café” (1918) and Tomás Saraceno with “Aluminum cloud in 10 modules” (2012).
Image gallery
