Art and violence

 

I mentioned in a previous post the art of Diego Rivera and the artist Frida Khalo who sheltered Leon Trotsky for two years before he was assassinated in Mexico City.

We visited the Frida Khalo museum which is in the house where she grew up and then owned with Diego Riviera. 

The house is known as the blue house for obvious reasons and has a beautiful garden and water feature in what appears to be a wealthy suburb of Mexico City. 

 

I was struck at first by how big it is.  I supposed that her family were probably fairly well off when she was young.  She was in a devastating collision during a bus ride in her early 20s and among other injuries a pole in the bus pierced through her lower back and out of her groin. 

Doctors where unsure of her chances for survival and over the years she had over 30 surgeries but she was never able to escape the pain in her back.  

 

Her art embodies this pain and the violence of an abortion and later a miscarriage that she suffered because her body was too damaged to bear children.

Later in her life,  Diego paid off the mortgage on the house, which allowed it to stay in the family so that when she returned there after divorcing Diego it eventually became hers.

She was a very strong person and her art was unique for the time.  She deservedly gained world-wide fame in her lifetime.

We re-watched the film with Selma Hayak which was filmed in the house and gardens (although I suspect a studio set was used for the earlier years before Frida had it painted blue).  She decorated the inside with so many small details that all made the visit well worth it.

For example there were two bedrooms for her near her art studio - the first, a day bedroom (for when she was in too much pain to get up) has a portrait of a dead child above the bed with a garland of flowers and now has her death mask surrounded by a shawl which museum docents change each season as she would have.  Under the canopy is a mirror that allowed her to paint self-portraits without having to get up.

 

 

In the second bedroom (her night bedroom) she had a display of butterflies mounted above her under the canopy.  The cushion on her says "Despierta mi carazon dormido" (Wake up my sleeping heart) which she may have embroidered for Diego - it had previously been on a chair in his bedroom.

Diego's bedroom is downstairs next to the dining room and had one of the two bathrooms that Diego closed off to the public and in which were some things that he had sealed from the public for 50 years after her death.  The bathroom is behind the green door in his room.

 

 

When they were opened they revealed among other things letters that she had written to her doctor, a confidant and friend - expressing her sorrow at not having been able to have a child and also his urging her to reunite with Diego who he said had three loves:  her, painting and other women but that he loved her despite being incapable of being monogamous.

Afterwards we took a walk down the road to an appropriately death-themed restaurant called La Calaca (the skeleton) in Coyoacán where an old couple were serenaded  by a mariachi band for their anniversary while we ate.