Sao Paulo, May 16 (EFE).- A photo exhibit featuring key moments in the lives of emblematic Mexican artists Frida Kahlo and Diego Rivera opens Wednesday in this Brazilian city.
Pictures capturing Rivera’s parents’ wedding, the couple participating in political demonstrations and even Frida lying in bed with her leg in a cast – a consequence of the polio that afflicted her as a child – are some of the 60 scenes on display in the exhibit titled “Frida and Diego: Fragments.”
Lucilia Guerra, one of the organizers, told EFE that the exhibit aims to “rescue the main features of two of the most emblematic artists in Mexican history.”
“It’s a very educational exhibit,” she said. “The photographs show Diego and Frida’s historical journey, as well as their political activism, as the two were very active in a revolutionary period in Mexico.”
Guerra added that the photographs – some of which date back to the 19th century – are part of the personal collection of the two painters’ families, which capture moments in the couple’s “private life,” as well as flashes of the two interacting with their innermost circle of friends.
“The photographs show the tenderness, care and the sort of rocky love they had for one another, as well as their emotional co-dependency,” she said, adding that the couple was constantly “out of tune,” as their relationship was marked by the continuous overlap of their “conflicting personalities.”
“Two people as unique as they were, together … Something would eventually go wrong!” she added. “But their work is the result of this tumultuous relationship.”
Frida Kahlo – who, Guerra said, is considered to be a woman “ahead of her time” – created more than 200 paintings, most of which are self-portraits, reflecting the inner turmoil of a life marked by tragedy from an early age.
Diego Rivera was a prominent artist who helped establish the Mexican mural movement of the early 20th century.