2024 — 2025
Level 1
As the centerpiece of the exhibition Third Eye, this artistic and vital dialogue between the two great Mexican artists has been on display since April 2024, consisting of the works Self-Portrait with Monkey and Parrot (1942) and Untitled (The Miscarriage) (1932) by Frida Kahlo and Baile en Tehuantepec (1928) by Diego Rivera, along with a series of photographs and historical letters that reflect their life together, the couple's interests, and Mexican cultural identity during the first half of the 20th century.
In this sense, Baile en Tehuantepec —one of Rivera's most important easel paintings— presents a scene with popular roots with almost documentary rigor, in keeping with the imagery of the Mexican Revolution and its vindication of local traditions. The women wear the traditional indigenous clothing and hairstyles of the Tehuantepec region: a brightly colored cotton skirt with ruffles, a huipil, and their hair in braids.
Kahlo depicts herself with a similar hairstyle in Self-Portrait with Monkey and Parrot. The fact that she painted herself as a Tehuana shows her alignment with Rivera and the ideals of José Vasconcelos' cultural program, especially his quest to recover national identity. But this fact is also a gesture of celebration of the social structure of that people, which was largely matriarchal. Ahead of her time, Kahlo explored the logic of the private and the intimate, bringing her own physicality into play. Her innovative practices and ideas made her an icon of resilience for feminism and sexual diversity.
The couple's personal life and political commitment are thus inextricably intertwined in their work, constituting a testimony to an era.
Images: Diego Rivera. Baile en Tehuantepec, 1928 [detail]; and Frida Kahlo. Self-Portrait with Monkey and Parrot, 1942.
An exceptional piece
Untitled (The Miscarriage) is the seventh edition of nineteen lithographs that Frida Kahlo made in 1932 and gave to María Luisa Cabrera de Block. The dedication reads: “To the cool Maluchita, from Frieda.” This is a unique work: it reflects her exceptional foray into this graphic technique and bears witness to Frida's artistic activity after suffering a miscarriage, the second in her nearly three years of marriage. At that time, together with the painter Lucienne Bloch, who had been Diego Rivera's assistant in New York, Frida was taking lithography classes a few blocks from Henry Ford Hospital. In this self-portrait laden with symbolism, the artist uses symmetry to create a dual composition through a divided figure. Her painting depicts an artistic practice conceived emotionally; it is a refuge from great pain, but also an expression of her desires as a woman artist who challenged the gender stereotypes of the time.
Data Sheet
Frida Kahlo
Litography on paper
27.5 x 19.5 cm
Elina y Eduardo F. Costantini Collection.
