We all love hearing life stories of people from whom we can draw inspiration, following their fears, hopes and dilemmas. This time I chose to write about an inspiring woman, known to many mainly because of the physical suffering that accompanied her throughout her life, Frida Kahlo. Frida Kahlo was a woman full of joy of life who broke many glass ceilings and one of them is directly related to France. Frida Kahlo was the first Mexican painter to exhibit in France and the first to have a painting of hers acquired by a French museum.
Frida Kahlo – The Early Years
Frida Kahlo was born in 1907 in Mexico, to a German-Jewish immigrant father and a Spanish-Indian mother. The home in which she grew up combined a free and liberated atmosphere, created by her photographer father, with a traditional and conservative upbringing by her Catholic mother.
When she was 6 years old, she contracted polio, which left her right foot crooked and left her very thin and emaciated. At 18, she was seriously injured in a car accident: a tram crashed into a bus she was riding in, and a metal rod pierced her stomach and pelvis. Frida was forced to lie in the hospital for several months, wrapped in a cast, and out of boredom she began to draw.
Frida suffered all her life from the illness and accident that caused her pain, disability, and later addiction to painkillers, and numerous surgeries on her back and leg, which was even partially amputated. From her youth, Frida Kahlo had an independent and rebellious nature. At the age of 21, she joined the Mexican Communist Party and met the painter Diego Rivera. The two fell in love and a year later, 22-year-old Frida became the third wife of 43-year-old Diego. Frida was a fragile young woman, Diego was a large man, a world-renowned painter and a womanizer.
Diego Rivera greatly influenced Frida, who admired him as an artist. Under his influence, she began to wear traditional Mexican clothing: colorful and embroidered dresses, exotic jewelry, and arranged her hair in complex hairstyles with flower decorations. Their life together was very turbulent and characterized by quite a few ups and downs. Diego was devoted to his art and often cheated on her by breaking up with other women, including her sister.
Frida herself had quite a few love affairs with both men and women, but always fought to save her marriage. At first Frida painted mainly for herself, she did not think about an artistic career, did not make an effort to exhibit in exhibitions, obtain patrons or reviews. She preferred to be seen as a fascinating personality than to be judged as a painter. She painted small, personal paintings that expressed the painful reality of her life in a direct and poignant way, so she sold a few paintings and then said that she felt sorry for the buyer and that perhaps he bought the painting because he was in love with her.
The journey to France
In early 1938, Diego pressured Frida to participate in a group exhibition at the small gallery of the university in Mexico City. Frida sent four paintings. A few people told her they were wonderful, the rest thought they were too crazy. One of the enthusiasts was Julien Levy, owner of a small, elegant gallery on East 57th Street in Manhattan, who specialized in surrealism. He wrote to Frida that he was interested in having her show at his gallery in New York.
In April 1938, André Breton, the writer and poet who created Surrealism, was sent on a lecture tour to Mexico by the French Foreign Ministry and saw Frida's work for the first time. Within a few months of his arrival, Breton and his wife were staying with the Riveras. Frida was hostile to Breton, but Breton was fascinated by Frida and loved her paintings. He offered to arrange a Exhibition in Paris After her debut exhibition in New York, he also wrote a complimentary article for the catalog of her exhibition at Julien Levy, where he declared her farewell as a surrealist.
In January 1939, Frida sailed for France. She initially stayed with André and Jacqueline Breton in their small apartment and later moved to a hotel. But the visit was not a success for her: Breton did not release the paintings from customs, claimed that he had not received the photographs of the paintings, and it turned out that no gallery was willing to exhibit her paintings.
Finally, Frida met the artist Marcel Duchamp, who arranged for the paintings to be released and convinced the Pierre Cole gallery, owned by Dali's art dealer, to present an exhibition in March with other artists. The gallery owner decided to only show two of her paintings because the rest were too shocking for the public. The exhibition ran for two weeks, with a large crowd at the opening, including artists Joan Miró, Wassily Kandinsky, and Pablo Picasso, but the exhibition was not a financial success.
Jacqueline Breton said that the French were too nationalistic to show interest in the work of an unknown foreigner and also did not yet value women enough. Frida said that men are kings, they run the world.
Although Frida Kahlo was disappointed by the visit and the exhibition's financial failure, some good things came out of it: her work received positive coverage in the newspaper "Le Flèche", The Louvre Museum Buy the painting “The Frame,” a portrait of Frida with her hair gathered in a yellow-green ribbon and topped with a giant yellow flower. This is the first painting in the twentieth century by a Mexican artist to be purchased by the Louvre Museum. The painting is currently in the collection of the Pompidou Museum.
The French fashion world was also enthusiastic about Frida. Elsa Chiaparelli was so enthusiastic about Frida's Mexican outfit that she designed a "Madame Rivera dress" for fashionable Parisians, and Frida's ring-encrusted hand appeared on the cover of Vogue magazine.
During Frida Kahlo's visit in Paris She visited Chartres, the castles of the Loire Valley and the Louvre. Despite everything, Frida did not like Paris. After the exhibition closed on March 25.3.1939, 143, she sailed for New York. During her life, Frida Kahlo painted 55 paintings, of which XNUMX were self-portraits that referred to the fatal accident and the terrible suffering of her broken body and tormented soul. Four of them are exhibited in France.
Frida Kahlo died in 1954 when she was only 47 years old. Today she is considered one of the most interesting painters in the world, and the French also recognize her importance, which is why from October 5.10.2016, 23.1.2017 to January XNUMX, XNUMX, an exhibition called “Mexico” will be on display at the Grand Palais, featuring paintings by Mexican artists, including Diego Rivera and Frida Kahlo.
Want to learn more about Frida Kahlo's work?
You are invited to hear Kinneret Zohar Lahav's lecture onFrida Kahlo exhibition at Mediatech in Holon.
Very interesting
I love her.