Frida & Diego: Passion, Politics and Painting

Frida & Diego: Passion, Politics and Painting

Start Date: Oct. 20, 2012 - Jan 20, 2013

Location: Art Gallery of Ontario

The exhibit Frida & Diego: Passion, Politics and Painting at the Art Gallery of Ontario features 75 works by the artists, drawn primarily from the collection of Mexico’s Museo Dolores Olmedo. Highlighting Frida Kahlo and Diego Rivera’s lives together and apart. The volatility of their relationship, politics, society, their views and activism are seen clearly in their work.

Kahlo paintings were described by French poet and writer André Breton as “a ribbon around a bomb.” She was often called a Surrealist, but shunned the label, claiming her paintings depicted realities instead of dreams.

Notable works by Kahlo include:

• Hospital Henry Ford (Henry Ford Hospital); 1932, oil on metal;
• Autorretrato con monos (Self Portrait with Monkeys); 1943, oil on canvas;
• La columna rota (The Broken Column); 1944, oil on masonite;
• El abrazo de amor de el universo, la tierra (México), Diego, yo y el Señor Xólotl (The Love Embrace of the Universe, the Earth (Mexico), Diego, Me and Señor Xólotl); 1949, oil on masonite.

Notable works by Rivera include:

• Autorretrato (Self Portrait); 1930, lithograph;
• La canoa enflorada (The Flowered Canoe); 1931, oil on canvas;
• Vendedora de alcatraces (Calla Lily Vendor); 1943, oil on masonite;
• El joven de la estilográfica (Portrait of Best Maugard); 1914, oil on canvas.

This exhibition is co-organized by the Art Gallery of Ontario (Toronto), the High Museum of Art (Atlanta) and the Museo Dolores Olmedo (Mexico City) in association with The Vergel Foundation, The Jacques and Natasha Gelman Collection of Mexican Art and Galería Arvil.