Two Houses, One Legend: A New Museum Shows Another Side of Frida Kahlo |
Business Finance Media Technology Policy Wealth Insights Interviews
Art Art Fairs Art Market Art Reviews Auctions Galleries Museums Interviews
Lifestyle Nightlife & Dining Style Travel Interviews
Power Lists Nightlife & Dining Art A.I. PR
About About Observer Advertise With Us Reprints
Two Houses, One Legend: A New Museum Shows Another Side of Frida Kahlo
Casa Azul introduces visitors to the facts of the iconic artist's life; a few blocks away, Casa Roja aims to immerse them in her inner world.
For three generations, art lovers have been drawn to a residential corner in the Coyoacán section of Mexico City to visit Casa Azul, the house where Frida Kahlo was born, lived, loved and painted for over 40 years. Witness to a vibrant past, its cobalt walls enclose a courtyard and garden cooled by fountains and shady pathways. Its rooms contain a museum dedicated to the beloved artist, with family photos and memorabilia, as well as the bed where she spent so much time painting while recovering from a horrifying streetcar accident in which she was impaled on a metal pole. White with yellow and blue tile, the kitchen includes the names of herself and the love of her life and bane of her existence, Diego Rivera, spelled out on the walls. Her studio is decorated with artworks and supplies, as well as an easel and wheelchair.
Sign Up For Our Daily Newsletter
Thank you for signing up!
By clicking submit, you agree to our terms of service and acknowledge we may use your information to send you emails, product samples, and promotions on this website and other properties. You can opt out anytime.
But while Casa Azul remains a bucket list destination for any Kahlo enthusiast, a second museum dedicated to the artist, just a few blocks away, opened last September. Casa Roja pulls back the curtain on Kahlo’s family life and, perhaps, introduces a new work to her oeuvre—a kitchen mural, El mesón de los gorriones (“The Table of the Scroungers”). It features the branches of a grapefruit tree like the one growing in the house’s courtyard, bougainvillea and a banner inscribed with the title held aloft by sparrows. While the mural is unsigned, it is believed by the family to be the work of Kahlo, despite French newspaper Le Monde citing both German art historian........