Frida on White Bench, New York, 1939. Nickolas Muray
Dallas has a special affinity for the bisexual Mexican artist
DAVID TAFFET | Senior Staff Writer
Taffet@DallasVoice.com
Dallas Museum of Art Director Agustín Arteaga said Frida Kahlo is “so beloved and so appreciated by our community.” But, he asked, “Do we truly know her?” A new exhibit at the DMA including 60 works helps us get to know her better.
Kahlo is certainly loved in Dallas. Several years ago, a preview of what was coming included just five of the artist’s works and lines formed to see them. That’s the only time I’ve ever seen people stand patiently to get to view individual pieces at the museum.
But Kahlo is special.
The 60 works in this exhibit — paintings, photographs, pencil drawings, ink on paper and more — are arranged chronologically to tell the story of the artist’s life. Of those, 30 are by the artist and 30 are about the artist, creating a narrative that walks you through her life.
And, Arteaga said, five of the works on exhibit “haven’t been in the public eye.”
In 1926, Kahlo was in a serious traffic accident when a streetcar hit the wooden bus she was riding. Several people were killed. Kahlo was impaled by an iron handrail that went through her pelvis and left her bedridden for three months and in pain for the rest of her life. She had studied art, but during her convalescence, she began to paint.
Many of the paintings she produced throughout her life were self-portraits, beginning with one painted in 1926 when the artist was just 19 years old. The oil on canvas is painted in the style of the early Renaissance painter Botticelli emphasizing a long neck, although in real life Kahlo’s neck was average.
But the painting from early in her career is compelling, and I stopped back by to look at it several times before leaving the gallery.
On the same wall hangs a portrait of Kahlo’s first boyfriend, Alejandro, painted just two years later. The style is much more Expressionist. Such was the breadth of her talent.
Through her activity in the Mexican Communist Party, which she joined in 1927, she met artist Diego Rivera. They married in 1929. The couple decided not to have children. Most biographies of her say that because of her accident, she was unable to conceive but the DMA reveals in its wall notes that by 1932, she had had two abortions.
And although she was born in 1907, Kahlo changed her birth year to 1910 — not for reasons of vanity, but because that was the year of the Mexican Revolution. She wanted to be associated with that historic event.
In 1940, Kahlo and Rivera divorced. Again, most biographies say it was because Rivera was unfaithful, but the DMA exhibit takes the information one step further. Kahlo filed for divorce because Rivera had an affair with her sister. Kahlo herself had been unfaithful and among those she had been with was New Mexico artist Georgia O’Keeffe.
Another of Kahlo’s relationships was with Hungarian photographer Nickolas Muray. Five of his lush and richly colored photos of her are part of the exhibit.
Kahlo and Rivera didn’t remain divorced long. They remarried later in 1940.
An interesting canvas is The Suicide of Dorothy Hale. An actress, Hale jumped from her top-floor apartment in the Hampshire House on Central Park South in New York City. Hale’s husband was mural and portrait artist Gardner Hale, and they socialized with artists including Kahlo and Muray.
Gardner Hale died in a car accident in 1931. And, given her failed acting career — most accounts say she had little talent — Dorothy relied on the generosity of wealthy friends to get by. But in 1938, she jumped to her death.
The controversial painting remained “hidden away for many years,” according to Arteaga, until it was finally donated to the Phoenix Museum of Art.
In the late 1930s, Kahlo ended a third pregnancy. During the Depression years, Kahlo and Rivera worked in and traveled around the U.S. Then during the period from 1940 to 1948 she gained professional success but suffered physical decline. In 1949, she had spinal surgery and remained hospitalized for nine months.
Kahlo continued painting, but rather than her signature self-portraits, the still life became the vehicle of expression for what was going on in her life.
Kahlo had her first solo show in Mexico in 1953. She attended the opening — lying in a bed. She died in 1954.
Frida: Beyond the Myth runs through Nov. 17. $20. Free the first Sunday of the month. The Dallas Museum of Art, 1717 N. Harwood St., is open Wednesday-Sunday from 11 a.m.-5 p.m.