Dynamic Duo’s Extraordinary Exhibit: Diego Rivera and Frida Kahlo in Detroit
Diego Rivera, Portrait of Ruth
Detroit Industry - south wall detail
Frida (Frieda) Kahlo, Frieda and Diego Rivera
Diego Rivera, Soviet Harvest Scene
The exhibition will explore the tumultuous and highly productive year that Mexican artists Diego Rivera and Frida Kahlo spent in Detroit, a pivotal turning point in each artist’s career. Along with approximately 70 works of art, the exhibition examines the economic conditions of the era, the industrial life of Detroit and its workers, and the controversy that surrounded the murals. Between April 1932 and March 1933, Rivera created one of his most accomplished mural cycles – Detroit Industry – on the four walls of a centrally located courtyard at the DIA. At the same time and largely unnoticed, Kahlo developed her now-celebrated artistic identity. By including works before, during
and after their time in Detroit, the exhibition also looks at the evolution of each artist’s career in relation to one another. Rivera’s epic preparatory drawings for Detroit Industry is the centerpiece of the exhibition. Not shown for almost 30 years, these magnificent works demonstrate Rivera’s sweeping narrative ambition, envisioned as a synthesis between Mexico’s spiritual values and United States industrial might. The works Kahlo created in Detroit will be shown for the first time in this city and will reveal the emergence of Kahlo’s shockingly personal, self-revelatory art style. A convergence of dramatic energy and ideas existed between Rivera’s grand con-
14 • Fine Art Magazine • Spring 2015
Frida Kahlo, Self Portrait with Monkey
ception and Kahlo’s tortured personal testimonies. They were both fascinated with the enterprises of Henry Ford. Ford Motor Company’s then state-of-the-art River Rouge plant is the subject of Rivera’s Detroit Industry frescos, and one of Kahlo’s most poignant paintings, Henry Ford Hospital, portrays a deeply emotional event she experienced there. The period prior to artists’ time in Detroit is anchored by Frieda and Diego Rivera, Kahlo’s great double portrait of the newlywed couple, and Rivera’s ravishing Flowered Barge that reveals his adoration of Mexican life. Further details are at http://www.dia.org