I have to confess an exhibit of Frida Kahlo's work at the Norton Museum didn't impress me much, but a visit to La Casa Azul (The Blue House) changed that completely. The paintings exhibited in her family home where she took her first and last breaths--and where she developed polio as a child--are less narcissistic than the self-portraits which perfectly reflect her modernity. "Viva La Vida" certainly embodies her sensual spirit.
Her father, a photographer, emigrated from Germany.
I love her color palette, whether she uses it for still life or abstraction.
This poster of her former lover hangs in one of the downstairs rooms. He looks a little crazed and his hair isn't entirely gray, so it must have been created while he was still rabble rousing in Russia.
You can see here why she called her home La Casa Azul. The blue is a lot like the one Yves Saint Laurent used at Jardin Majorelle, which has a similar feel.
Kahlo's tchotchke collection is non-pareil!
Her colorful dining table and a chair occupy much of an impractical kitchen.
It looks as if she was good at playing both sides of the fence, something that seems to have been true of her sexuality as well. Just check out Salma Hayek as Frida doing the tango with Ashley Judd in Julie Taymor's biopic.
The New York Botanical Gardens "re-created" Kahlo's studio in the Haupt Conservatory in 2015. It also exhibited five small paintings. After all the hype, I left feeling ripped off. But La Casa Azul really exceeded my expectations. I liked it almost as much as Anahuacalli which is about a 20-minute drive away. Many tourists purchase tickets to see them both on the same day but I'm glad we did the sights separately.
I wonder how Kahlo got up and down the stairs to her studio?
Kahlo died at the age of 47 not quite a year after I was born, just a thousand miles north. The large Mesoamerican urn contains her ashes.
A portrait of Diego Rivera, whom she married twice, hangs in her bedroom. They never lived together in this house.
"Wake up sleeping heart" is stitched in needlepoint on her night bed pillow.
The grounds of La Casa Azul are as colorfully decorated as the interior.
Another building houses a display of Kahlo's garments.
She drew this--"Feet, why do I want them if I have wings to fly?"in her diary--near the end of her life, around the time her leg was amputated.
Kahlo's corset supported her spine and looks like armor.
She titled this drawing, discovered less than 20 years ago in her bathroom, "appearances can be deceiving." Indeed. I wonder what she would make of her fame now, so long after her death?
No comments:
Post a Comment