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FRIDA
ABOUT
FRIDA KAHLO
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FRIDA
ABOUT
FRIDA KAHLO
This
page was created on November 30, 2002
This page was last updated on
May 23, 2005
Frida
--Review -click
here
Frida
-- About Frida Kahlo -click here
Frida
-- About this Film -click
here
Frida
-- About the Cast and Crew -click
here
Frida
--Spiritual Connections -click
here
Frida
--Forum -click
here
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ABOUT
FRIDA KAHLO
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From
her complex and enduring relationship with her mentor and husband,
Diego Rivera, to her illicit and controversial affair with Leon Trotsky,
to her provocative romantic entanglements with women, Frida Kahlo
lived a bold and uncompromising life as a political, artistic and
sexual revolutionary. FRIDA chronicles the life Frida Kahlo (SALMA
HAYEK) shared openly and unflinchingly with Diego Rivera (ALFRED MOLINA)
as this controversial couple took the art world by storm.
FRIDA is directed by Julie Taymor, the acclaimed director of Titus
and Broadway's production of "The Lion King" and "The Green Bird."
ABOUT FRIDA KAHLO
"Self Portrait"
A debilitating September 1925 bus accident irreversibly changed Frida
Kahlo's life. Riding with longtime friend Alejandro Gomez Arias, their
bus collided with a tram, killing several people and seriously injuring
many others. Frida was found half naked among the wreckage, bathed
in blood and gold dust, and impaled on a metal rod. Her spinal column,
ribs, pelvis and collarbone were shattered in the accident. Her right
foot was crushed. Her right leg, crippled years earlier by polio,
was broken in a dozen places. A metal rod entered through her left
hip and exited through the vagina, causing a deep abdominal wound
and leaving her unable to have children.
Months of painful, expensive recovery and therapy followed. Her physical
convalescence included several immobilizing plaster casts and corsets,
traction, and often-barbaric experimental operations. But much of
Frida's misery came from the severe isolation and loneliness of her
devastating condition. Frida passed the time pouring out her feelings
through painting.
Her photographer father, Guillermo, and mother, Matilde, sold practically
all they owned to finance the countless operations. Despite their
dire financial situation, they supported Frida's newfound interest
in painting and presented their bedridden daughter with a specially
constructed easel. Additionally, they fitted Frida's canopy bed with
a mirror so she could be her own model.
Once Frida was able to walk again, she had the audacity to visit the
already renowned Diego Rivera for a professional critique. Diego was
taken not only by her impressive work, but also by the young artist's
tenacity, charm and beauty.
By their own admissions, this meeting became the defining moment in
both of their lives. "I did not know it then, but Frida had already
become the most important fact in my life," Diego said about the encounter
at the Ministry of Education.
For Frida, Diego's encouragement was paramount in her artistic evolution,
but later, after a particularly onerous transgression, she had a slightly
different take on the impact of their relationship: "I have suffered
two big accidents in my life, one in which a streetcar ran over me.
The other was Diego." Diego and Frida married in Coyoacan on
August 21, 1929.
Frida's mother did not approve of the union, despite Diego's generous
financial assistance. She said the coupling was "like an elephant
marrying a dove," and objected to the 21-year age difference, his
well-known philandering and his obesity. The couple's circle of artists
and intellectual friends, which included photographer Tina Modotti
and muralist David Siqueiros, were also dubious about the pairing
and its chances for success. But Frida and Diego believed they were
born for each other, pledging loyalty, if not fidelity. Ex-wife Lupe
Marin became a major part of Diego and Frida's life together. After
their initial mutual jealousies subsided, Marin and Frida became good
friends.
In 1930, the restless Diego was commissioned to paint murals in the
United States. He and Frida traveled to San Francisco, Detroit and
New York, where he painted a series of murals in public and private
buildings. During the trip, Frida discovered she was pregnant. While
she was thrilled, Diego worried about her health and ability to carry
a child.
The couple became the darlings of prominent urban art circles. "Diego
loves it," Frida said. "He's like a big Mexican piñata with enough
candy for everyone." Diego adored the adulation and indulged in numerous
affairs. But Frida, who also took lovers, longed for the land and
people of Mexico.
After suffering a miscarriage, Frida infused her pain and loneliness
in such paintings as Henry Ford Hospital (1932), Self Portrait on
the Borderline between Mexico and the United States (1932) and My
Dress Hangs There (New York) (1933). When her mother passed away,
Frida returned briefly to Mexico for the funeral only to discover
that her sister Cristina had left her husband and had fallen into
a state of depression.
Though she wanted to stay in Mexico, Frida was compelled to return
to New York when Diego found himself in an internationally publicized
battle with Nelson Rockefeller. Rockefeller asked Diego to remove
a portrait of Lenin from a mural in Rockefeller Center. When Diego
refused Rockefeller, he fired him and then destroyed the mural - leaving
Diego enraged and depressed. Diego and Frida returned to Mexico in
December, 1933 and moved into a house in San Angel, designed by artist
friend Juan O'Gorman. The new home, near Coyoacan in southern Mexico
City, comprised twin houses of the Bauhaus style joined by a bridge.
Diego fell further into depression and eventually began an affair
with Frida's sister, Cristina. Frida's discovery of this relationship
soon resulted in separation.
Diego eventually returned to Frida, asking her help in making a home
for exiled Russian leader Leon Trotsky. At the request of Diego, Trotsky
was granted asylum by Mexican President Cardenas. Reluctantly, Frida
complied and opened up her family home.
In January 1937, Trotsky and his wife, Natalia Sedova moved into Frida's
parents' home, which was modified into a makeshift fortress, replete
with armed guards, machine gun nests and bricked up windows.
Trotsky captivated Frida and Diego with his wit, intellect, passion
and courage. Joined by Surrealist Andre Breton, the Riveras and Trotskys
visited the ruins at Teotihuacan and debated politics and culture.
Trotsky and Frida shared an immediate attraction to one another.
Breton was an instant admirer of Frida's work - when he saw her paintings
he said "My God! This is what we've been writing Surrealist theses
about in Europe. You're just doing it!" He described her work
as "a ribbon around a bomb." Breton promised to get Frida
art shows in New York and Paris After two years with Diego and Frida
- during which time Frida and Trotsky's attraction escalated into
a love affair - Trotsky moved on. Frida struck out on her own, determined
to be independent. Breton's exhibition promises came to fruition in
Paris in January, 1939. The Louvre purchased one of Frida's paintings,
Self-Portrait (The Frame) 1938. It was the first painting of any Latin
American artist to hang in the famous French museum.
But the pretensions of Parisian intellects and critics bored Frida.
She longed once again for Diego and for Mexico. Emboldened by her
successes in Europe, she eagerly set out to return to home and to
resume her life with Diego. Upon arriving home in 1939, Frida discovered
that Diego wanted a divorce. He planned to move to California.
Frida's health deteriorated quickly. But this dark time became one
of Frida's most prolific artistic periods, prompting her to paint
what many consider some of her finest works, including The Two Fridas
(1939), Self-Portrait with Cropped Hair (1940), The Dream or The Bed
(1940) and Two Nudes In the Forest (1940).
When Trotsky was assassinated, Frida was questioned by the police,
who were also looking for Diego. In the aftermath of the assassination
and Diego's desertion, Frida's poor health worsened. Her toes gangrened
and were amputated. She underwent more operations on her back, developing
kidney infections and other complications. She was hung upside down
and corseted in steel. At each turn, she focused on one thing to pull
her through, telling doctors: "Just patch me up, so I can paint."
Frida was surprised by Diego's return- and by his proposal of remarriage.
Frida consented to the union, comforted that the love of her life
had returned to her. They married in December, 1940. Frida's and Diego
settled into a complex, passionate marriage and working partnership.
She returned to her parent's Pink House and painted it cobalt blue.
Frida filled the Blue House (as it is now known) with art, color and
native furnishings, flora and a myriad of animals including monkeys,
parrots, Xolotzcuincle (hairless) dogs, birds and deer.
More operations and hospitalizations had Frida reaching into her pain
to produce some of her most acclaimed works, including The Broken
Column (1944), Without Hope (1945) and Moses (1946).
Diego was at Frida's side through her nine-month hospitalization in
1950, and during the amputation of her right leg in 1953. Frida's
dependence on painkillers and endless series of infections and complications
finally made life unbearable. On the night of July 12, 1954, ill with
pneumonia, Frida called Diego to her bedside and presented him with
his 25-year anniversary gift - an antique ring - although the anniversary
was still two weeks away. She passed away in her sleep that night.
Frida died on July 13, 1954, a week after her 47th birthday.
*****
Virtually unknown outside of Mexico until the mid-1980s, Frida is
now the world's most coveted female painter, consistently smashing
international auction records. More than 100 books in English and
Spanish have been written about Frida and Diego; and the US Postal
Service recently issued a Frida Kahlo stamp as part of the US Commemorative
Stamp Program - Frida is the first Hispanic woman to be honored with
a US postage stamp.
Many theories exist as to why Frida's popularity has soared. Most
agree she merged the personal, artistic and political in such an organic,
brutally honest way, her life and art became inseparable. Frida not
only turned her exterior self into a political and cultural statement
as well as a work of art with traditional Indian clothes, jewelry
and hair, but she turned her fears, pain, suffering, obsessions and
loves into some of the world's most revelatory, shocking and memorable
images. With a knowledge of biology and a body filled with pain, Frida
embraced her most raw self, creating sometimes horrific, wrenching
and disturbing depictions of dynamics and emotions that one writer
saw as nothing less then than the embodiment of "Mexico's long history
of conquest and suffering, pride and oppression."
Frida's obsession with Diego is evident in numerous paintings that
include him as Frida's "third eye," child, or other half. Despite
obstacles and infidelities, their lifelong partnership of work and
revolution lasted from the time they met in 1928 until Frida's death.
"It's an amazing, epic love story," says Alfred Molina, who plays
Diego in the film. "They married twice and went through an extraordinary
life together [in which] they shared politics, a love of art and a
sense of importance about what they were doing. They also shared lovers
and led a very unconventional lifestyle, which was both provoking
and shocking to the people of the time."
Some are still provoked and shocked today. Diego and Frida's open
marriage and her bisexuality - not to mention their mutual jealousies
- made their lasting union and devotion to one another remarkable.
"It was a strange love affair. Very, very unique," says Salma Hayek,
who plays Frida in the film. "Diego needed to be free at all times
and he needed to be nurtured at all times. Frida loved Diego unconditionally
and her capacity for this type of love changed Diego, until, at the
end of the day, he was capable of unconditional love for her, too."
"Their love lasted because it was real," says director Julie Taymor.
"It began with a mutual respect of each other as artists and comrades
in spirit and grew into a profound intellectual, artistic and erotic
attraction. Frida's strong sense of freedom and independence suited
and freed Diego while he was a source of encouragement and inspiration
for her. With all their crises and separations, there was still a
deep, deep honesty and love. When Diego comes back to Frida at her
lowest moment, he tells her, 'I miss us.' He needed her. They needed
each other. The sum of the two was much greater than each alone."
For Hayek, the key to the endurance of Diego and Frida's love and
art was the couple's "willingness to find out who the other person
was - and who they were themselves. Frida was so full of courage to
be who she was and to take life as it came and enjoy every second
of it intensely, even the suffering, it's inspirational. Her passion
made me passionate." |
CONTINUE
Frida --Review -click
here
Frida
-- About Frida Kahlo -click here
Frida
-- About this Film -click
here
Frida
-- About the Cast and Crew -click
here
Frida
--Spiritual Connections -click
here
Frida
--Forum -click
here |
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