Frida Kahlo photography exhibit to open Nov. 5
The Biggs Museum of American Art in Dover will host an exhibition titled Frida Kahlo: Through the Lens of Nickolas Muray, starting Friday, Nov. 5, featuring famous photographic portraits of the artist Frida Kahlo captured by Nickolas Muray (1892-1965).
In May 1931, Muray traveled to Mexico on vacation, where he met Frida Kahlo (1907-1954), a woman he would never forget. The two started a romance that continued on and off for the next 10 years and a friendship that lasted until her death in 1954. Approximately 50 photographic portraits Muray took of Kahlo comprise the exhibition. The photographs, dating from 1937 to 1946, explore Muray’s unique perspective; in the 1930s and 1940s, he was Kahlo's friend, lover and confidant. Muray's photographs bring to light Kahlo's deep interest in her Mexican heritage, her life and the people with whom she shared close friendships.
Born in Hungary, Muray became a successful New York fashion and commercial photographer known for his portraits of celebrities, politicians, socialites and artists. Having experimented with color early on, he found his most colorful model in Kahlo. His portraits of her have made their way into a variety of media and popular culture, and are integral to the world’s understanding of who Frida Kahlo was as an individual behind her artwork.
Kahlo was born on July 6, 1907, in Coyocoán, Mexico City, Mexico, and began painting after she was severely injured in a bus accident. Considered one of Mexico's greatest artists, she also became politically active and married fellow artist Diego Rivera in 1929. She exhibited her paintings in Paris and Mexico before her death in 1954.
Inspired by this exhibition, the Biggs put out a call to young artists in kindergarten through 12th grades to submit their portraits of Kahlo to celebrate her powerful and uncompromising sense of self. An exhibition all of the submissions to the Mi Frida Portrait Contest by will be on view in the children’s gallery through Saturday, Feb. 12.
The exhibition Unmasking Culture: An Examination of the Ritual Masks of Mexico will accompany these exhibits to celebrate and enhance the understanding of the cultural heritage of Mexico for which Kahlo has become a global icon. This exhibition presents antique masks used by Mexican indigenous people in their centuries-old religious dances and ceremonies. Items in this collection are on loan from the Althouse Collection, which was established by the late Thomas and Charlotte Althouse during their travels and residence in Mexico in the 1950s and 1970s. The private collection was later passed on to their son, artist Stephen Althouse.
To learn more, go to BiggsMuseum.org.
