Frida kahlo blad by ACC Art Books

MILAN MUDEC - MUSEO DELLE CULTURE 1 ST FEBRUARY - 3 RD JUNE 2018

Mayor Giuseppe Sala Councillor for Culture Filippo Del Corno Director of Culture Giulia Amato

Director Museo delle Culture Anna Maria Montaldo

Press Office Comune di Milano Elena Conenna

Administrative Coordination and Management Wanda Galbiati

Installation, glass cases and lighting Gruppofallani

Conservation Office Giorgia Barzetti Carolina Orsini

Furnishings for common spaces Contract

Administrative Office Eugenio Arcieri

President Giorgio Fossa CEO Franco Moscetti

B.o.D. Massimo Pietro Colombo Domenico Galasso Chiara Giudice Franco Moscetti President Franco Moscetti CEO Massimo Pietro Colombo

Translator Alice Colombi

Technical Office Giuseppe Braga

Marketing and Events Coordination Francesca Belli

Mudec Manager Simona Serini

Giulia Mordivoglia Chiara Casalinuovo With the contribution of Massimo Navoni Letizia Rossi

Head of Exhibition Office, Development and International Relationships Paola Cappitelli Exhibition Office Coordination Alberta Crestani

Frida Kahlo Corporation

For all the works by Frida Kahlo and Diego Rivera: © Banco de México Diego Rivera Frida Kahlo Museums Trust, Mexico, D.F. by SIAE 2018. Reproducción autorizada por el Instituto Nacional de Bellas Artes y Literatura, 2018. Published by 24 ORE Cultura srl, Milano © 2018 24 ORE Cultura srl, Milano Literary and artistic property reserved for all countries. Any reproduction, even partial, is prohibited. First edition February 2018 ISBN 978-88-6648-383-0 Printed in Italy

Bookshop Stefania Vadrucci Editorial Office Chiara Bellifemine Editor-in-chief Giuseppe Scandiani Head of Picture Research Gian Marco Sivieri

24 ORE Cultura Manager Chiara Giudice

Cinzia Leccioli with the collaboration of

Editorial Office and Bookshop Coordination Chiara Savino

Lucia Benaglio Francesca Calabretta Silvia Iannelli Registrar Sandra Serafini

Communication and Promotion Coordination Sara Lombardini Head of Technical and Graphics Department Maurizio Bartomioli General Secretariat Elisabetta Colombo Giorgia Montagna Press Office Gruppo 24 ORE Ginevra Cozzi Elettra Occhini Social Media Massimo Brugnone

MILAN MUDEC - MUSEO DELLE CULTURE 1 ST FEBRUARY - 3 RD JUNE 2018

Mayor Giuseppe Sala Councillor for Culture Filippo Del Corno Director of Culture Giulia Amato

Director Museo delle Culture Anna Maria Montaldo

Press Office Comune di Milano Elena Conenna

Administrative Coordination and Management Wanda Galbiati

Installation, glass cases and lighting Gruppofallani

Conservation Office Giorgia Barzetti Carolina Orsini

Furnishings for common spaces Contract

Administrative Office Eugenio Arcieri

President Giorgio Fossa CEO Franco Moscetti

B.o.D. Massimo Pietro Colombo Domenico Galasso Chiara Giudice Franco Moscetti President Franco Moscetti CEO Massimo Pietro Colombo

Translator Alice Colombi

Technical Office Giuseppe Braga

Marketing and Events Coordination Francesca Belli

Mudec Manager Simona Serini

Giulia Mordivoglia Chiara Casalinuovo With the contribution of Massimo Navoni Letizia Rossi

Head of Exhibition Office, Development and International Relationships Paola Cappitelli Exhibition Office Coordination Alberta Crestani

Frida Kahlo Corporation

Bookshop Stefania Vadrucci Editorial Office Chiara Bellifemine Editor-in-chief Giuseppe Scandiani Head of Picture Research Gian Marco Sivieri

24 ORE Cultura Manager Chiara Giudice

Cinzia Leccioli with the collaboration of

Editorial Office and Bookshop Coordination Chiara Savino

Lucia Benaglio Francesca Calabretta Silvia Iannelli Registrar Sandra Serafini

18. Frida Kahlo (attributed) Diego Rivera’s eye (front and back), 1936. Mexico City, Museo Dolores Olmedo.

17. Frida Kahlo (attributed) Rockefeller Center, New York, undated. Mexico City, Museo Dolores Olmedo.

FRIDA KAHLO BEYOND THE MYTH Frida Kahlo. Appearances can be deceiving — Diego Sileo

18. Frida Kahlo (attributed) Diego Rivera’s eye (front and back), 1936. Mexico City, Museo Dolores Olmedo.

17. Frida Kahlo (attributed) Rockefeller Center, New York, undated. Mexico City, Museo Dolores Olmedo.

FRIDA KAHLO BEYOND THE MYTH Frida Kahlo. Appearances can be deceiving — Diego Sileo

FRIDA KAHLO BEYOND THE MYTH

Frida Kahlo. Appearances can be deceiving — Diego Sileo

Notes 1. Teresa del Conde, Frida Kahlo, la Pintora y el Mito

14. The two artists were shown together for the first

catastrophic events ordered by the gods. The world in

26. In the visual arts, a silhouette is an image that

33. Araceli Rico, Frida Kahlo: Fantasia de un Cuerpo

architects and master builders. These skilled carvers

(Mexico D.F.: Instituto de Investigaciones Estéticas,

time in the exhibition Frida Kahlo and Tina Modotti,

which we live is the fifth sun, and the Aztecs liked to call

shows only a thing’s outline. It was Gian Gaspare

Herido (Mexico D.F.: Plaza y Valdés, 1993): 150.

and sculptors formed stone shapes that, beyond

Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México, 1992).

curated by Peter Wollen and Laura Mulvery, Whitechapel

themselves “the people of the sun”, whose divine task

Lavater (1741-1801) who is responsible for the spread of

Art Gallery, London, 1983. In the exhibition, the two

was to wage war in order to provide the sun with its

this portrait method. This brilliant native of Zurich had

34. Gilles Deleuze, Présentation de Sacher-Masoch

revealed the persistence of their beliefs and ancestral

2. Luis-Martín Lozano, Frida Kahlo (Boston: Bulfinch,

artists and friends were set side by side in terms of

tlaxcaltiliztli (nourishment). Without it, the sun would

conducted scientific study of the relationship between

(Paris: Ed. de Minuit, 1967).

sentiments. The American Baroque, therefore, gathers

2000).

various themes related to art and especially to the

disappear from the sky. Its health and the survival of the

character and physiognomy and had, precisely for this

politics of post-nineteen-seventies feminism.

universe depended on the offerings of blood and hearts

reason, become a zealous collector of portraits in profile.

35. Chacmool is the name given to a type of sculpture

but also the effects of the spiritual crisis experienced

made to the sun.

Beginning in 1775, he published his magnificent work

typical of pre-Columbian Mesoamerica. The Chacmool

by the natives on the Spaniards’ arrival. The Baroque

in four volumes Physiognomische Fragmente, which

represents a reclining human figure with the head raised

is thus a style based not only on hybridization and syncretism, but on mestizo idealogy as well.

3. These two and Andrea Kettenmann were the co-

their baroque appearance and new religious content,

not only the European patterns and creole redirections,

authors of Frida Kahlo. Das Gesamtwerk [catalogue

15. Miguel León-Portilla, Aztec Thought and Culture:

raisonné] (Frankfurt: Verlag Neue Kritik, 1988).

A Study of the Ancient Nahuatl Mind, trans. Jack Emory

22. Luis Roberto Vera’s essay was the first to describe

contains numerous portraits and profiles of eminent

and facing the right side, with a tray resting on the belly,

Davis (London: University of Oklahoma Press, 1963):

the theory of the Five Suns and the representation of

people. In Germany Lavater had more adversaries

on which offerings were probably placed for sacrifices,

200-221.

the quincunx in Frida Kahlo’s art (op. cit., pp. 120-124).

than followers, mos of all the witty and satirical Georg

especially to the sun god, in which the victim’s heart

43. With all the early conversion activities being carried

The quincunx is the arrangement of five units in the

Christoph Lichtenberg, but in France he and his idea

was torn out. The significance of the statue’s position

out within the cloister, it was felt that there was a need

16. Respectively: Raquel Tibol in Frida Kahlo 1907-2007

layout in which the number five is typically depicted

were all the rage. In the enthusiasm for the black

remains unknown.

to create a central element, a point of reference to give

(Mexico D.F.: Editorial RM, 2007); Hayden Herera in Frida

on the face of a die or a playing card. The name derives

puppets, a “silhouetting” machine was even invented.

5. Raquel Tibol, Frida Kahlo, Crónica, Testimonios y

Kahlo: the Paintings (New York: HarperCollins Publishers,

from the quincunx of Roman coinage. In pre-Columbian

Only later did the “black art” find supporters in Germany,

36. Painter (Vienna 1907 - Mexico City 1959). He

the architectural space and to the religious activities

Aproximaciones (Mexico D.F.: Editorial de la Cultura

1991); Carlos Fuentes in the preface to the diary (Mexico

numerology the quincunx symbolizes the legend of the

but for reasons that are anything but romantic or

studied philosophy and painting in France, Germany

that took place in it. And what better emblem than the

Popular, 1977).

D.F.: La Vaca Independiente, 1995); Luis Roberto Vera,

Five Suns. Its most complex and elaborate expression

scientific. At the beginning of the twentieth century,

and Italy and settled in Paris in 1928, where he was

universal symbol of Christianity to realize this function?

Frida Precolombina (Veracruz: Universidad Veracruzana,

is the Aztec calendar. However, there is a more succinct

Germany was poorer than poor. Germans were barely

part (1932-1935) of the group Abstraction-Création. He

Thus, from the first colonial temples, crosses rose

2009).

version (which is also the one most used by Frida):

scraping by and had to save any way they could. Oil

then joined the Surrealist movement, painting with the

majestically in the centre of cloisters. These crosses

an elongated rectangle with four small circles in each

portraits and miniatures were expensive, and the “black

fumage technique (using the flame of a candle). In 1939

were carved in different types of stone, shaped like a

4. Salomon Grimberg, Frida Kahlo (North Dighton, Massachusetts: JG Press, 1997); Frida Kahlo. Song of Herself (London and New York: Merrell, 2008).

6. The mother goddess of the Mesoamerican civilizations, Itzpapalotl, is represented with butterfly

meaning and unity to its Christian content, both to

wings. Itzpapalotl (or “butterfly with claws” or

17. Saturnino Herrán (1887-1918) was the first Mexican

corner and one in the middle. At the same time, the

shadows”, decidedly cheaper, took the upper hand in the

he moved to Mexico, where he and Breton organized the

Latin cross, from one to three meters high, and their

also “obsidian butterfly”) was – according to Aztec

artist to come up with the idea of a total Mexican

quincunx symbolizes the four cardinal points and their

genre of portraiture.

1940 Surrealist exhibition, and founded the magazine

bodies could be quadrangular, octagonal, or tubular.

mythology – a tzitzimime, a frightening skeletal-looking

art capable of uniting pre-Columbian tradition and

intersection at the point where the upper, middle, and

Dyn.

Most stand on an octagonal or square base. One of

deity that ruled the heavenly world of Tamoanchan. She

modernity. He was the one behind founding a school for

lower levels converge, that is, in the pre-Columbian

27. The painting was commissioned by José Domingo

was the protector of women who died during childbirth

the development of the muralist movement.

cosmogony, the axis mundi through which, from the

Lavin, who gave Frida Freud’s work Moses and

37. Raquel Tibol, Frida Kahlo en su Luz Más Íntima

Franciscan monastery of Huexotzingo, in Puebla, not far

earth, it is possible to access the thirteen celestial levels

Monotheism to read ( 1938).

(Mexico DF: Lumen [Random House Mondadori], 2005):

from Mexico City.

and represented the ancestral spirit of the tztitzimime. 18. José Vasconcelos Calderón (Oaxaca, 28 February

the best examples of atrial crosses is found in the

94-96. The notes that constitute the content of this

and the nine levels of hell.

7. Margaret Hooks, ‘La cámara y la imagen’, Frida Kahlo.

1882 - Mexico City, 30 June 1959) was a Mexican writer,

28. In Hinduism, Vishnú is one of the aspects of God

new biography were recorded by Tibol in May 1953, along

La gran ocultadora, (Madrid: Turner/Throckmorton Fine

philosopher and politician, one of the most important

23. Raquel Tibol, Frida Kahlo 1907-2007: Homenaje

as well as the second Person of the Trimurti, the triple

with her new considerations.

Art, 2002): 11.

in the history of Mexico. He wrote the essay La Raza

Nacional, exhibition catalogue from the Palacio de

manifestation.

Cósmica (1925), where he credited the pre-Columbian

Bellas Artes (Mexico D.F.: Editorial RM, 2007): 234.

8. Nancy Spector, ‘Meret Oppenheim. Performing

populations with the territorial, spiritual and racial

Identities’, Jacqueline Burkhardt and Bice Curiger, Meret

factors necessary to begin “the universal era of

Oppenheim. Beyond the Teacup (New York: Independent

humanity”.

Curators, 1996): 35-42. 9. More recently, Estrella de Diego has developed

38. André Breton, Mexique (Paris: Galerie Renou et 29. Isis (Aset or Eset, meaning “throne” in the

Colle, 1939); quoted in Rauda Jamis, Frida Kahlo, It.

24. Tlalocan is the fourth level of the “higher worlds”,

Egyptian language), originally from the Delta, is the

trans. by Flavia Celotto (Milan: Tea, 2003): 263.

or “heavens”, divided into four parts according to the

goddess of motherhood and fertility in Egyptian

mythical cosmography of the Nahuatl-speaking peoples

mythology.

39. Hayden Herrera, op. cit., p. 139.

19. Precious stones from the archaeological site of the

who inhabited pre-Columbian central Mexico. It is

same name in the Mexican state of Zacatecas.

described mainly in colonial stories dealing with Aztec

30. In Aztec mythology, Coatlicue (“serpent skirt”),

40. The forms of sacrifice of the human body varied. In

mythology. The Aztecs believed there were thirteen

was the goddess of fire and fertility, mother of the

the first place there was the ceremony of the offering of

southern star.

the heart, which was torn from the victim’s living body.

a similar line of reflection in her book Querida Gala. Las vidas ocultas de Gala Dalí (Madrid: Espasa-Calpe,

20. From the emptiness that filled the universe, the

levels of Higher Worlds and nine levels of Lower Worlds;

2003), where she presents Gala as a co-creator of her

first god, Ometeotl, created himself. Ometeotl was both

in their conception of the underworld, the way in which

mythologized image.

male and female at the same time, good and bad, light

a person died would determine on which of these levels

31. Osiris (Asar or Ausar in ancient Egyptian, possibly

well as flaying practices during which the victims’ skin

and dark, fire and water, critical and magnanimous,

he or she would end up. Tlalocan was also the ninth

meaning vegetation) is the Egyptian god of death and

was removed while they were still alive. For bloodless

10. Hooks also (op. cit., p. 15) describes how Frida

the god of duality. Ometeotl had four children, the

level of the Lower Worlds, which in Eduard Seler’s

the underworld, as well as of fertility. As the god of

sacrifices, offerings of flowers, incense or various fruits

was delayed for hours getting dressed before a photo

four Tezcatlipocas, each of whom presided over one of

interpretation was the highest of the lower worlds of

agriculture, he was worshipped during the month of

were very popular.

session.

the four cardinal directions. To the east was the white

the East. The name Tlalocan comes from the nahuatl,

khoiak during the harvest of the grain, whose seeds

There were also ceremonies of immolation with fire, as

Tezcatlipoca, Quetzalcoatl, god of light, mercy and

and means “place of Tlaloc”, and is associated with the

symbolized his resurrection and were also used in

41. Huitzilopochtli (hummingbird of the left, or

11. “Little brother: he’s a bit sad because he was

wind; to the south the blue Tezcatlipoca, Huitzilopochtli,

main Mesoamerican deity of rain and lightning. The

funerary rites in the statuette called “vegetating Osiris”.

hummingbird of the south, since the south is on the left

sleeping and I woke him up to make a portrait of him,

god of war; to the west the red Tezcatlipoca, Xipe

levels of paradise were reserved for those who had

As god of vegetation he is often represented in the

of the sun when it rises) was the sun god who protected

but he says he was dreaming that Diego will come soon.

Totec, god of gold, agriculture and spring; and to the

died a violent death, and Tlalocan was reserved for

shape of a mummy from which plants sprout.

the tribe and drove them to war to procure human

What do you think? I send you lots of kisses and also

north the black Tezcatlipoca, known only by the name

those who were drowned or killed for reasons related to

the Chaparra.”

Tezcatlipoca, god of judgment, of night, of deception, of

water, such as floods or storms, or struck by lightning.

32. The two twins were born of a virgin, the goddess

had assisted them in their migration from Aztlán to

magic and of the Earth.

It was also the afterlife destination for those who were

Coatlicue. Quetzalcoatl, or Feathered Serpent or

Mexico. From then on he became the protector of the

considered dependents of Tlaloc, especially physically

“Precious Twin” in the Nahuatl language, is the

kingdom. Seventy thousand prisoners of war were

deformed people.

Aztec name of the plumed serpent god of ancient

sacrificed during the consecration of his main temple in

Mesoamerica, one of the most important deities for

the year 1486.

12. Ancient hairless breed of Aztec dog. 21. In the creation myths, the term Five Suns refers to

victims to sacrifice. The Aztecs believed that this god

13. “I knew that the battlefield of suffering was

the religious belief of the Aztecs and Nahua, broadly

reflected in my eyes.

described in ancient texts and calendars, in which the

25. Carlos Monsiváis, Frida Kahlo (Mexico D.F.: Partido

many Mexican and Central American civilizations.

So I started looking directly at the lens, without

current world was preceded by four other cycles of

Revolucionario Insitucional/Comité Ejecutivo Nacional/

Xolotl, according to Aztec mythology, even before Toltec

42. During the sixteenth century, indigenous artisans,

blinking, without smiling, determined to show that I am

creation and destruction. These former worlds and their

Secretaría de Información y Propaganda, 1988): 86-87.

mythology, was the god of lightning and the one who

recently converted, were employed in the construction

a good fighter to the end.”

inhabitants had been created and then destroyed by

helped the dead on their journey to Mictlan.

of new Christian temples, under the direction of Spanish

44. Luis Roberto Vera, op. cit., p. 184.

FRIDA KAHLO BEYOND THE MYTH

Frida Kahlo. Appearances can be deceiving — Diego Sileo

Notes 1. Teresa del Conde, Frida Kahlo, la Pintora y el Mito

14. The two artists were shown together for the first

catastrophic events ordered by the gods. The world in

26. In the visual arts, a silhouette is an image that

33. Araceli Rico, Frida Kahlo: Fantasia de un Cuerpo

architects and master builders. These skilled carvers

(Mexico D.F.: Instituto de Investigaciones Estéticas,

time in the exhibition Frida Kahlo and Tina Modotti,

which we live is the fifth sun, and the Aztecs liked to call

shows only a thing’s outline. It was Gian Gaspare

Herido (Mexico D.F.: Plaza y Valdés, 1993): 150.

and sculptors formed stone shapes that, beyond

Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México, 1992).

curated by Peter Wollen and Laura Mulvery, Whitechapel

themselves “the people of the sun”, whose divine task

Lavater (1741-1801) who is responsible for the spread of

Art Gallery, London, 1983. In the exhibition, the two

was to wage war in order to provide the sun with its

this portrait method. This brilliant native of Zurich had

34. Gilles Deleuze, Présentation de Sacher-Masoch

revealed the persistence of their beliefs and ancestral

2. Luis-Martín Lozano, Frida Kahlo (Boston: Bulfinch,

artists and friends were set side by side in terms of

tlaxcaltiliztli (nourishment). Without it, the sun would

conducted scientific study of the relationship between

(Paris: Ed. de Minuit, 1967).

sentiments. The American Baroque, therefore, gathers

2000).

various themes related to art and especially to the

disappear from the sky. Its health and the survival of the

character and physiognomy and had, precisely for this

politics of post-nineteen-seventies feminism.

universe depended on the offerings of blood and hearts

reason, become a zealous collector of portraits in profile.

35. Chacmool is the name given to a type of sculpture

but also the effects of the spiritual crisis experienced

made to the sun.

Beginning in 1775, he published his magnificent work

typical of pre-Columbian Mesoamerica. The Chacmool

by the natives on the Spaniards’ arrival. The Baroque

in four volumes Physiognomische Fragmente, which

represents a reclining human figure with the head raised

is thus a style based not only on hybridization and syncretism, but on mestizo idealogy as well.

3. These two and Andrea Kettenmann were the co-

their baroque appearance and new religious content,

not only the European patterns and creole redirections,

authors of Frida Kahlo. Das Gesamtwerk [catalogue

15. Miguel León-Portilla, Aztec Thought and Culture:

raisonné] (Frankfurt: Verlag Neue Kritik, 1988).

A Study of the Ancient Nahuatl Mind, trans. Jack Emory

22. Luis Roberto Vera’s essay was the first to describe

contains numerous portraits and profiles of eminent

and facing the right side, with a tray resting on the belly,

Davis (London: University of Oklahoma Press, 1963):

the theory of the Five Suns and the representation of

people. In Germany Lavater had more adversaries

on which offerings were probably placed for sacrifices,

200-221.

the quincunx in Frida Kahlo’s art (op. cit., pp. 120-124).

than followers, mos of all the witty and satirical Georg

especially to the sun god, in which the victim’s heart

43. With all the early conversion activities being carried

The quincunx is the arrangement of five units in the

Christoph Lichtenberg, but in France he and his idea

was torn out. The significance of the statue’s position

out within the cloister, it was felt that there was a need

16. Respectively: Raquel Tibol in Frida Kahlo 1907-2007

layout in which the number five is typically depicted

were all the rage. In the enthusiasm for the black

remains unknown.

to create a central element, a point of reference to give

(Mexico D.F.: Editorial RM, 2007); Hayden Herera in Frida

on the face of a die or a playing card. The name derives

puppets, a “silhouetting” machine was even invented.

5. Raquel Tibol, Frida Kahlo, Crónica, Testimonios y

Kahlo: the Paintings (New York: HarperCollins Publishers,

from the quincunx of Roman coinage. In pre-Columbian

Only later did the “black art” find supporters in Germany,

36. Painter (Vienna 1907 - Mexico City 1959). He

the architectural space and to the religious activities

Aproximaciones (Mexico D.F.: Editorial de la Cultura

1991); Carlos Fuentes in the preface to the diary (Mexico

numerology the quincunx symbolizes the legend of the

but for reasons that are anything but romantic or

studied philosophy and painting in France, Germany

that took place in it. And what better emblem than the

Popular, 1977).

D.F.: La Vaca Independiente, 1995); Luis Roberto Vera,

Five Suns. Its most complex and elaborate expression

scientific. At the beginning of the twentieth century,

and Italy and settled in Paris in 1928, where he was

universal symbol of Christianity to realize this function?

Frida Precolombina (Veracruz: Universidad Veracruzana,

is the Aztec calendar. However, there is a more succinct

Germany was poorer than poor. Germans were barely

part (1932-1935) of the group Abstraction-Création. He

Thus, from the first colonial temples, crosses rose

2009).

version (which is also the one most used by Frida):

scraping by and had to save any way they could. Oil

then joined the Surrealist movement, painting with the

majestically in the centre of cloisters. These crosses

an elongated rectangle with four small circles in each

portraits and miniatures were expensive, and the “black

fumage technique (using the flame of a candle). In 1939

were carved in different types of stone, shaped like a

4. Salomon Grimberg, Frida Kahlo (North Dighton, Massachusetts: JG Press, 1997); Frida Kahlo. Song of Herself (London and New York: Merrell, 2008).

6. The mother goddess of the Mesoamerican civilizations, Itzpapalotl, is represented with butterfly

meaning and unity to its Christian content, both to

wings. Itzpapalotl (or “butterfly with claws” or

17. Saturnino Herrán (1887-1918) was the first Mexican

corner and one in the middle. At the same time, the

shadows”, decidedly cheaper, took the upper hand in the

he moved to Mexico, where he and Breton organized the

Latin cross, from one to three meters high, and their

also “obsidian butterfly”) was – according to Aztec

artist to come up with the idea of a total Mexican

quincunx symbolizes the four cardinal points and their

genre of portraiture.

1940 Surrealist exhibition, and founded the magazine

bodies could be quadrangular, octagonal, or tubular.

mythology – a tzitzimime, a frightening skeletal-looking

art capable of uniting pre-Columbian tradition and

intersection at the point where the upper, middle, and

Dyn.

Most stand on an octagonal or square base. One of

deity that ruled the heavenly world of Tamoanchan. She

modernity. He was the one behind founding a school for

lower levels converge, that is, in the pre-Columbian

27. The painting was commissioned by José Domingo

was the protector of women who died during childbirth

the development of the muralist movement.

cosmogony, the axis mundi through which, from the

Lavin, who gave Frida Freud’s work Moses and

37. Raquel Tibol, Frida Kahlo en su Luz Más Íntima

Franciscan monastery of Huexotzingo, in Puebla, not far

earth, it is possible to access the thirteen celestial levels

Monotheism to read ( 1938).

(Mexico DF: Lumen [Random House Mondadori], 2005):

from Mexico City.

and represented the ancestral spirit of the tztitzimime. 18. José Vasconcelos Calderón (Oaxaca, 28 February

the best examples of atrial crosses is found in the

94-96. The notes that constitute the content of this

and the nine levels of hell.

7. Margaret Hooks, ‘La cámara y la imagen’, Frida Kahlo.

1882 - Mexico City, 30 June 1959) was a Mexican writer,

28. In Hinduism, Vishnú is one of the aspects of God

new biography were recorded by Tibol in May 1953, along

La gran ocultadora, (Madrid: Turner/Throckmorton Fine

philosopher and politician, one of the most important

23. Raquel Tibol, Frida Kahlo 1907-2007: Homenaje

as well as the second Person of the Trimurti, the triple

with her new considerations.

Art, 2002): 11.

in the history of Mexico. He wrote the essay La Raza

Nacional, exhibition catalogue from the Palacio de

manifestation.

Cósmica (1925), where he credited the pre-Columbian

Bellas Artes (Mexico D.F.: Editorial RM, 2007): 234.

8. Nancy Spector, ‘Meret Oppenheim. Performing

populations with the territorial, spiritual and racial

Identities’, Jacqueline Burkhardt and Bice Curiger, Meret

factors necessary to begin “the universal era of

Oppenheim. Beyond the Teacup (New York: Independent

humanity”.

Curators, 1996): 35-42. 9. More recently, Estrella de Diego has developed

38. André Breton, Mexique (Paris: Galerie Renou et 29. Isis (Aset or Eset, meaning “throne” in the

Colle, 1939); quoted in Rauda Jamis, Frida Kahlo, It.

24. Tlalocan is the fourth level of the “higher worlds”,

Egyptian language), originally from the Delta, is the

trans. by Flavia Celotto (Milan: Tea, 2003): 263.

or “heavens”, divided into four parts according to the

goddess of motherhood and fertility in Egyptian

mythical cosmography of the Nahuatl-speaking peoples

mythology.

39. Hayden Herrera, op. cit., p. 139.

19. Precious stones from the archaeological site of the

who inhabited pre-Columbian central Mexico. It is

same name in the Mexican state of Zacatecas.

described mainly in colonial stories dealing with Aztec

30. In Aztec mythology, Coatlicue (“serpent skirt”),

40. The forms of sacrifice of the human body varied. In

mythology. The Aztecs believed there were thirteen

was the goddess of fire and fertility, mother of the

the first place there was the ceremony of the offering of

southern star.

the heart, which was torn from the victim’s living body.

a similar line of reflection in her book Querida Gala. Las vidas ocultas de Gala Dalí (Madrid: Espasa-Calpe,

20. From the emptiness that filled the universe, the

levels of Higher Worlds and nine levels of Lower Worlds;

2003), where she presents Gala as a co-creator of her

first god, Ometeotl, created himself. Ometeotl was both

in their conception of the underworld, the way in which

mythologized image.

male and female at the same time, good and bad, light

a person died would determine on which of these levels

31. Osiris (Asar or Ausar in ancient Egyptian, possibly

well as flaying practices during which the victims’ skin

and dark, fire and water, critical and magnanimous,

he or she would end up. Tlalocan was also the ninth

meaning vegetation) is the Egyptian god of death and

was removed while they were still alive. For bloodless

10. Hooks also (op. cit., p. 15) describes how Frida

the god of duality. Ometeotl had four children, the

level of the Lower Worlds, which in Eduard Seler’s

the underworld, as well as of fertility. As the god of

sacrifices, offerings of flowers, incense or various fruits

was delayed for hours getting dressed before a photo

four Tezcatlipocas, each of whom presided over one of

interpretation was the highest of the lower worlds of

agriculture, he was worshipped during the month of

were very popular.

session.

the four cardinal directions. To the east was the white

the East. The name Tlalocan comes from the nahuatl,

khoiak during the harvest of the grain, whose seeds

There were also ceremonies of immolation with fire, as

Tezcatlipoca, Quetzalcoatl, god of light, mercy and

and means “place of Tlaloc”, and is associated with the

symbolized his resurrection and were also used in

41. Huitzilopochtli (hummingbird of the left, or

11. “Little brother: he’s a bit sad because he was

wind; to the south the blue Tezcatlipoca, Huitzilopochtli,

main Mesoamerican deity of rain and lightning. The

funerary rites in the statuette called “vegetating Osiris”.

hummingbird of the south, since the south is on the left

sleeping and I woke him up to make a portrait of him,

god of war; to the west the red Tezcatlipoca, Xipe

levels of paradise were reserved for those who had

As god of vegetation he is often represented in the

of the sun when it rises) was the sun god who protected

but he says he was dreaming that Diego will come soon.

Totec, god of gold, agriculture and spring; and to the

died a violent death, and Tlalocan was reserved for

shape of a mummy from which plants sprout.

the tribe and drove them to war to procure human

What do you think? I send you lots of kisses and also

north the black Tezcatlipoca, known only by the name

those who were drowned or killed for reasons related to

the Chaparra.”

Tezcatlipoca, god of judgment, of night, of deception, of

water, such as floods or storms, or struck by lightning.

32. The two twins were born of a virgin, the goddess

had assisted them in their migration from Aztlán to

magic and of the Earth.

It was also the afterlife destination for those who were

Coatlicue. Quetzalcoatl, or Feathered Serpent or

Mexico. From then on he became the protector of the

considered dependents of Tlaloc, especially physically

“Precious Twin” in the Nahuatl language, is the

kingdom. Seventy thousand prisoners of war were

deformed people.

Aztec name of the plumed serpent god of ancient

sacrificed during the consecration of his main temple in

Mesoamerica, one of the most important deities for

the year 1486.

12. Ancient hairless breed of Aztec dog. 21. In the creation myths, the term Five Suns refers to

victims to sacrifice. The Aztecs believed that this god

13. “I knew that the battlefield of suffering was

the religious belief of the Aztecs and Nahua, broadly

reflected in my eyes.

described in ancient texts and calendars, in which the

25. Carlos Monsiváis, Frida Kahlo (Mexico D.F.: Partido

many Mexican and Central American civilizations.

So I started looking directly at the lens, without

current world was preceded by four other cycles of

Revolucionario Insitucional/Comité Ejecutivo Nacional/

Xolotl, according to Aztec mythology, even before Toltec

42. During the sixteenth century, indigenous artisans,

blinking, without smiling, determined to show that I am

creation and destruction. These former worlds and their

Secretaría de Información y Propaganda, 1988): 86-87.

mythology, was the god of lightning and the one who

recently converted, were employed in the construction

a good fighter to the end.”

inhabitants had been created and then destroyed by

helped the dead on their journey to Mictlan.

of new Christian temples, under the direction of Spanish

44. Luis Roberto Vera, op. cit., p. 184.

Frida Kahlo returns — Hayden Herrera

On 6 July 2017, while the walls of the Dallas Museum of Art were hung with a superb exhibition of Mexican art from the first half of the twentieth century, the museum, together with Dallas’s Latino Center for Leadership Development, celebrated the Mexican painter, Frida Kahlo’s 110th birthday with a “Frida Fest” in which people dressed up to look like Kahlo. The event, which aimed to set a Guinness World Record for Frida Kahlo-garbed fans, turned out to be wildly popular. Five thousand guests attended and over one thousand women, men, and children – mostly Latinos – gathered outside the museum and then formed a procession through the museum’s ground floor rooms. The costumes were flamboyant. After she married the muralist Diego Rivera in 1929, Frida Kahlo began to dress in regional Mexican skirts and blouses. She especially loved the traditional clothes worn by the women of Tehuantepec – long skirts, usually of red or purple velvet with white cotton ruffles at the hem and a loose huipil (blouse) decked with bands of embroidery. The costumed museum visitors crowned their heads with Kahlo style braids adorned with ribbons and flowers. They wore long flowered dresses and pink or red rebozos (shawls) and they made up their faces with rouge and bright lipstick. Even small children penciled in a unibrow – Kahlo’s joined eyebrows looking like a bird in flight. The crowd was animated, full of Kahloesque alegria (joy). The participants had come to the museum because they loved and identified with Frida Kahlo and they wanted to show their appreciation for the central message of her art and life: strength in adversity, joy in the face of pain. The procession of Frida Kahlo look alikes was especially moving because it not only testified to the participants’ passionate engagement with the values Kahlo stood for, it also showed their refusal to be beaten down by political oppression. All the smiling, laughing faces gave evidence of Latino solidarity in a time when so many immigrants were being mercilessly rounded up and deported, with no consideration for the breaking up of families and no compassion for teenagers who came to this country as babies and were threatened with having to return to a country they did not remember. To watch this procession was strength-giving. Like Frida Kahlo’s life and work, it was a celebration of fortitude. Since the mid 1970s, when her paintings began to reach a wide audience, Frida Kahlo has become an international cult figure. For Latinos in the United States she is a kind of talisman. In Texas, she was known as the patron saint of unwed mothers and undocumented workers. She is revered for her passion for her native roots, her love for Mexican popular culture, her leftist politics, and her fierce support of la Raza. Now, when the alt-right and white supremacists are undermining America’s belief in equality, liberty, and security for all, the way Frida Kahlo and her husband, the muralist Diego Rivera marched and raised their fists during street protests is all the more admirable. Chicanos have also responded to Kahlo’s insistence on differentness. She defied convention

1. Frida Kahlo Self-portrait Dedicated to Trotsky, 1937. Washington, National Museum of Women in the Arts.

Hayden Herrera

frida kahlo returns

Frida Kahlo returns — Hayden Herrera

1. Frida Kahlo Self-portrait Dedicated to Trotsky, 1937. Washington, National Museum of Women in the Arts.

Hayden Herrera

frida kahlo returns

FRIDA KAHLO BEYOND THE MYTH

Frida Kahlo, BC / AD — Juan Rafael Coronel Rivera

Notes

1. I wish to thank Patricia Cordero of the Google Cultural

7. H. Prignitz-Poda et al., Frida Kahlo. Das Gesamtwerk

13. L. González Matute, Escuelas de Pintura al Aire Libre

Institute.

(Hannover: Editorial Neue Kritik, 1988): 193.

y Centros Populares de Pintura. Colección Artes Plásticas

2. http://www.nytimes.com/1999/06/04/arts/art-

8. C. Phillips Olmedo et al., Tesoros de la Casa Azul de

review-trolling-the-mind-s-nooks-and-crannies-for-

Frida y Diego (Museo Frida Kahlo Collection, 6 luglio

images.html.

2007) (Mexico City: Banco de México / Fideicomiso

(“Investigación y Documentación de las Artes”) (Mexico City: INBA / SEP, 1987): 81. 14. Ibidem, p. 82

Museos Diego Rivera y Frida Kahlo): 5. 15. R. Tibol, Escrituras de Frida Kahlo, p. 77.

3. The cities where the largest numbers of Mexicans live are Mexico City (23,500,000), Los Angeles

9. R. Tibol, Escrituras de Frida Kahlo (Mexico City: Plaza

(9,800,000), Guadalajara (4,796,603) and Monterrey

y Janés, 2004): 29.

10. Frida Kahlo Village Girl, 1925. Gobierno del Estado de Tlaxcala, Instituto Tlaxcalteca de la Cultura.

Dallas, and Houston are among the cities where the

10. C. Phillips Olmedo et al., Tesoros de la Casa Azul de

greatest numbers of Mexicans live, and where a

Frida y Diego, op. cit., p. 31.

17. L.M. Schneider, El estridentismo o una literatura de la estrategia (“Lecturas Mexicanas”, series IV) (Mexico

cultural and economic symbiosis has taken place unlike anywhere else in the world.

16. M. Zamora, Frida. El pincel de la angustia (Mexico City: Eleia Editores, 1987): 12.

(4,437,643). In the United States, Chicago, New York,

11. A. Best Maugard et al., Método de dibujo. Tradición,

City: CNCA, 1997): 27.

resurgimiento y evolución del arte mexicano (Mexico City: 4. J.E. Cirlot, Diccionario de símbolos (Barcelona:

Departamento Editorial de la Secretaría de Educación

Editorial Labor): 279.

Pública, 1923): 13.

5. Ibidem, p. 297

12. The titles used today for the works belonging to the

18. Ibidem, p. 28 19. R. Tibol, Escrituras de Frida Kahlo, p. 29.

Museo de Arte di Tlaxcala do not date to Frida’s time; 6. https://centauro996.wordpress.com/2008/03/29/

they were assigned by the scholar Mercedes Meade de

la-columna-b-su-significado-y-su-interpretacion.

Angulo.

FRIDA KAHLO BEYOND THE MYTH

Frida Kahlo, BC / AD — Juan Rafael Coronel Rivera

Notes

1. I wish to thank Patricia Cordero of the Google Cultural

7. H. Prignitz-Poda et al., Frida Kahlo. Das Gesamtwerk

13. L. González Matute, Escuelas de Pintura al Aire Libre

Institute.

(Hannover: Editorial Neue Kritik, 1988): 193.

y Centros Populares de Pintura. Colección Artes Plásticas

2. http://www.nytimes.com/1999/06/04/arts/art-

8. C. Phillips Olmedo et al., Tesoros de la Casa Azul de

review-trolling-the-mind-s-nooks-and-crannies-for-

Frida y Diego (Museo Frida Kahlo Collection, 6 luglio

images.html.

2007) (Mexico City: Banco de México / Fideicomiso

(“Investigación y Documentación de las Artes”) (Mexico City: INBA / SEP, 1987): 81. 14. Ibidem, p. 82

Museos Diego Rivera y Frida Kahlo): 5. 15. R. Tibol, Escrituras de Frida Kahlo, p. 77.

3. The cities where the largest numbers of Mexicans live are Mexico City (23,500,000), Los Angeles

9. R. Tibol, Escrituras de Frida Kahlo (Mexico City: Plaza

(9,800,000), Guadalajara (4,796,603) and Monterrey

y Janés, 2004): 29.

10. Frida Kahlo Village Girl, 1925. Gobierno del Estado de Tlaxcala, Instituto Tlaxcalteca de la Cultura.

Dallas, and Houston are among the cities where the

10. C. Phillips Olmedo et al., Tesoros de la Casa Azul de

greatest numbers of Mexicans live, and where a

Frida y Diego, op. cit., p. 31.

17. L.M. Schneider, El estridentismo o una literatura de la estrategia (“Lecturas Mexicanas”, series IV) (Mexico

cultural and economic symbiosis has taken place unlike anywhere else in the world.

16. M. Zamora, Frida. El pincel de la angustia (Mexico City: Eleia Editores, 1987): 12.

(4,437,643). In the United States, Chicago, New York,

11. A. Best Maugard et al., Método de dibujo. Tradición,

City: CNCA, 1997): 27.

resurgimiento y evolución del arte mexicano (Mexico City: 4. J.E. Cirlot, Diccionario de símbolos (Barcelona:

Departamento Editorial de la Secretaría de Educación

Editorial Labor): 279.

Pública, 1923): 13.

5. Ibidem, p. 297

12. The titles used today for the works belonging to the

18. Ibidem, p. 28 19. R. Tibol, Escrituras de Frida Kahlo, p. 29.

Museo de Arte di Tlaxcala do not date to Frida’s time; 6. https://centauro996.wordpress.com/2008/03/29/

they were assigned by the scholar Mercedes Meade de

la-columna-b-su-significado-y-su-interpretacion.

Angulo.

306

FRIDA KAHLO BEYOND THE MYTH

The Wounded Deer 1946

Oil on masonite 22.4 x 30 cm Private collection

In February 1946, after almost four years of being confined to bed, Frida decided to go to New York to put herself into the hands of Dr Philip Wilson, an eminent American surgeon recommended by her friend Arcady Boytler, who was also suffering from back problems. On 3 May, one month before flying to New York, Frida gave a self-portrait to Arcady Boytler and his wife Lina. The work was delivered to their home together with a poem of thanks: “Despite this, joy is present in my heart when I think that Arcady and Line love me for what I am. Accept this picture painted with tenderness in exchange for your affection and infinite kindness.” The deer with Frida’s head crowned with thorns – modelled by her fawn Granizo – leaps through a leafless wood and stares straight at the viewer. It has been struck by nine arrows (in Eastern philosophy the number nine signifies the divine) which have left bleeding wounds in its body. The arrows evoke the iconography of the body of St Sebastian as a symbol of pain and martyrdom. Beneath its hoofs, none of which touch the ground, is a torn-off branch with tender green leaves, alluding to Frida’s broken youth and imminent death. It also refers to the Pre-Columbian custom of placing a dry branch on a tomb to help the deceased enter heaven. Upon their subsequent resurrection, the dry branch is transformed into a green branch. In the background we can see an expanse of water and flashes of lightning that descend from the clouds. Although the stormy sky in the distance is clearing, as emphasized by Frida’s poem, we know that the deer will never reach the sea.

One meaning of the word CARMA, which appears in the painting next to the artist’s signature, is destiny or fate and, as in the majority of her self-portraits, Frida presents herself – according to the interpretation of Hayden Herrera – as unable to change her destiny. “Sadness is portrayed in all my works, but it is my condition and there is no longer a remedy for it.” The youthful vigour of the deer contrasts with the decaying old tree trunks of the wood, whose broken branches and knots correspond to its wounds. In Aztec symbology – as Salomon Grimberg tells us – the deer represents the right foot; even after several operations, her right foot continued to deteriorate and the deer could be a sort of talisman for Frida. This is certainly the most enigmatic work produced by the artist and its meaning is still open to many other interpretations today. Andrea Kettenmann talks about Frida’s hopes that were shattered by the unsuccessful operation and Margaret Lindauer describes the image as surreal, interpreting Frida as being involved in the battle of the sexes, struck by the arrows of patriarchy. Helga PrignitzPoda, on the other hand, develops an interesting parallel with the tale of Dido in Virgil’s Aeneid, in which the beautiful queen of Carthage wanders, after her suicide, like a wounded deer through the woods of the otherworld, beyond the Styx. An image from the Codex Rios (Italian translation of a Spanish manuscript of pre-Columbian culture), binds the deer by the right foot, the same one that the artist painted wounded and bleeding in What the Water Gave Me, 1938.

306

FRIDA KAHLO BEYOND THE MYTH

The Wounded Deer 1946

Oil on masonite 22.4 x 30 cm Private collection

384