Frida Kahlo, Diego Rivera and Mexican Modernism

The exhibition is curated by Helga Prignitz-Poda, with the collaboration of Christina Kahlo (Frida Kahlo’s great-granddaughter) and Juan Coronel Rivera (Diego Rivera’s nephew). It features 200 works, including paintings and drawings, and over 80 photographs, and presents the intimate relationship between famous Mexican couple Frida Kahlo and Diego Rivera. The section dedicated to Diego Rivera includes a series of paintings produced in the early 20^th century, which were inspired by Cubism (for example The last hour and Saint Martin’s Bridge), figurative art, the frescoes of Italian painters as well as the early Christian and Byzantine mosaics that Rivera studied during his trip to Italy. The latter are represented in his Italian Sketchbook, the inspiration for what would later become Mexican muralism. Rivera’s work was very much in fashion among Mexican high society. Some of its representatives are included in the exhibition. One of them, Natasha Gelman, was portrayed by both Rivera and Kahlo.