Detroit
art museum to open Rivera and Kahlo exhibition in March
Send a link to a friend
[March 11, 2015]
By Serena Maria Daniels
DETROIT (Reuters) - The
Detroit Institute of Arts, renowned for its Diego Rivera
murals, is set to open a public exhibition of his works
and those of his wife, Frida Kahlo, this month, the
biggest since the museum's collection was threatened in
the city's bankruptcy.
|
"Diego Rivera and Frida Kahlo in Detroit" will feature nearly
70 works by the Mexican artists and is the first to focus on the
11 months they spent in Detroit in 1932 and 1933, when Rivera
worked mainly on the "Detroit Industry" murals.
Rivera's preparatory drawings for the 27-panel "Detroit
Industry" frescoes, which have not been shown in nearly 30
years, will be part of the exhibit opening on Sunday.
The idea for the exhibit arose more than a decade ago, but
uncertainty over the city-owned institution's finances and other
setbacks delayed the process, museum director Graham Beal said.
Dozens of works were obtained on loan from museums in the United
States and Mexico and from private collectors.
"When we knew we had a life in front of us, we returned to the
idea of the Rivera exhibition, based on the Rivera murals," Beal
said.
![](http://archives.lincolndailynews.com/2015/Mar/11/images/ads/current/pest_control_bch_092414.png)
Curator Mark Rosenthal teamed with experts in labor, medicine
and the city's Mexican-American community to give visitors a
sense of what life was like for the artists in Depression-era
Detroit.
Rivera's grandson Juan Coronel Rivera told reporters it was
daunting to research his grandfather but that the project helped
him better understand his contributions to modern art.
His research included reviewing archives of letters Rivera wrote
to Kahlo when she left Detroit to be with her dying mother in
Mexico, he said.
[to top of second column] |
![](http://archives.lincolndailynews.com/2015/Mar/11/images/ads/current/castlemanor_lda_032414.png)
"When the mural was finished, it was the most important piece of
modern art in the United States," Rivera said.
Rivera, whose murals celebrating revolutionary themes often met with
controversy in the United States, considered the "Detroit Industry"
murals his best work and they are among the museum's most celebrated
pieces.
In Detroit, Kahlo, a then unknown artist plagued by fertility issues
and a distaste for American culture, developed her most recognizable
works, including "Henry Ford Hospital," which is on loan from the
San Francisco Museum of Modern Art.
The painting shows a mourning Kahlo in a hospital bed with a
developed fetus outside her body but still attached by an umbilical
cord. One hand holds a paint palette, representing her unrealized
chance at motherhood and her role as an artist.
(Reporting by Serena Maria Daniels; Editing by Peter Cooney)
[© 2015 Thomson Reuters. All rights
reserved.] Copyright 2015 Reuters. All rights reserved. This material may not be published,
broadcast, rewritten or redistributed. |