Frida Kahlo i Diego Rivera \ 28.09.17-21.01.18
Exhibition of masterpieces of Frida
Kahlo and Diego Rivera from the Jacques and Natasha Gelman
collection, as well as works from private and museum collections in Mexico,
Germany and Poland.
Exhibition curator: Dr Helga Prignitz-Poda
Frida
Kahlo and Diego Rivera. The Polish Context will be Poland’s first and only exhibition devoted to
Kahlo and Rivera, additionally enriched with the little known, yet highly
compelling Polish context. As regards the latter, the show will explore the
oeuvre of two Polish-born artists whom fate brought very close to Frida and
Diego (Bernice Kolko and Fanny Rabel), as well as revisit the Exhibition
of Mexican Art, held in 1955 in Poland, during which the works of Kahlo, Rivera
and Rabel were displayed.
Frida
Kahlo and Diego Rivera. The Polish Context at ZAMEK Culture Centre, will be divided into several
parts.
The works of Kahlo and Rivera from the Jacques and Natasha Gelman
Collection in Mexico will be presented in our Exhibition Hall. Frida Kahlo
de Rivera enjoys a singular fame throughout the world, renowned and admired for
her numerous self-portraits in which “pain and passion” are conveyed to the
accompaniment of vivid, exuberant colours. At the age of 22, Frida she married
the famous Mexican painter, Diego Rivera. In 1953, when Frida Kahlo had her
first and the only solo exhibition in Mexico, one of the critics observed: "It
is impossible to separate the life and work of this extraordinary person. Her
paintings are her biography." Viewers coming to ZAMEK Culture Centre will
have the opportunity to see the some of the best known, virtually iconic
masterpieces of Frida’s, such as Self-Portrait
with a Necklace, Portrait of Diego Rivera, or Self-Portrait MCMXLI. The show will comprise around 40 works
created by Kahlo and Rivera, as well as famous photographic depictions of
the artist by e.g. Nickolas Muray, who took multiple portraits of Frida in the
1930s and 1940s.
Leaving the Exhibition Hall, viewers will be able to
access a specially constructed screening room, where we will be showing
documentaries addressing the life and work of Frida Kahlo and her husband.
In the west wing of the Castle, our visitors will find
photographs by Bernice Kolko, who became Frida’s close friend in the final years
of her life. The bond between both was so intimate that Kolko had leave to take
very personal pictures of Frida, who did not feel bound to assume any poses and
let herself be portrayed in her everyday surroundings, in the garden, with
friends, or even as she lay ill in bed.
Yet another room will be devoted to the work of Fanny
Rabel, one of the four closest students of Frida’s, who also collaborated with
Diego Rivera as he worked on his extensive murals. Her oeuvre, depicting
everyday life of Mexico in the 1940s and 1950s, is a testimony to the
environment in which Kahlo lived and worked.
Further on, viewers will enter an interior retrospecting
on the Exhibition of Mexican Art, which took place in Poland in 1955. It was
one of the major events in Polish artistic and cultural life of the 1950s. The
show included works by the foremost Mexican artists of the 20th century, among
which there was Kahlo’s La Mesa Herida
(The Wounded Table), her largest work
ever, seen for the last time at that very exposition.
Naturally, Frida
Kahlo and Diego Rivera. The Polish Context will also delve into the
phenomenon of Frida’s popularity and the impact of her art on successive generations
of artists, not only from Mexico.
The exhibition will be accompanied by an abundant
programme of museum classes, lectures, guided tours and creative workshops.
The Jacques and Natasha Gelman Collection of
20˚Century Mexican Art and The Vergel Foundation © 2016 Banco de México
Diego Rivera Frida Kahlo Museums Trust, Mexico, D.F. / Artists Rights
Society (ARS), New York