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Diego and I
Frida Kahlo • Painting, 1949, 29.5×22.4 cm
Description of the artwork «Diego and I»
Self-portrait is the most frequent genre in Frida Kahlo's short but intense oeuvre. She portrayed herself three times in the 1920s, twenty times in the following decade, twenty more times in the 1940s and finally five times in the four years before her death in 1954. Overall, one third of all her works are self-portraits, not counting those where the presence of the author was metaphorical or symbolic.
Contrary to an oft-repeated legend, Frida Kahlo did not become an artist because she was bedridden after an accident in her youth. Her artistic vocation manifested itself in childhood and was nurtured by her father, a famous photographer and amateur painter.
It was then that Frida first encountered aesthetic portraiture and self-portraiture. She observed the faces of clients who posed for Guillermo Kahlo and engaged in retouching photographs, which required diligence and an inquisitive eye. As her father's favorite model, Frida learned how to pose in front of the camera lens. She also watched as Guillermo himself took dozens of self-portraits, trying to capture this or that facet of his personality.
During her formative years, Frida Kahlo began to study the history of Western art. She read illustrated biographies Leonardo da Vinci, Rembrandt van Rijn и Albrecht Dürer - artists who cultivated portraiture and self-portraiture. As a result, her work has combined many aesthetic and artistic references. Kahlo's self-portrait combines the techniques of both photography and painting by old masters.
"Diego and I." is characterized by painstakingly detailed images, complex iconography and a deeply personal narrative. All these are distinctive features of the mature period of Frida Kahlo's work. The painting, painted in 1949, was the last self-portrait of the 40s and the last completed shoulder self-portrait of her life.
After his second marriage to the famous muralist Diego Rivera the constantly experimenting Kahlo synthesized a wide variety of influences, ranging from Aztec and Oriental mythology to medicine and botany. At the same time she reached the peak of her technical prowess. In Diego and I, the artist clearly draws on the tradition of the pectoral self-portrait, which first gained popularity during the European Renaissance. Applying the motifs and techniques of the portrait painting of that period, she enters into a dialogue with such canonical masters as Albrecht Dürer.
Although much of the panel is occupied by Kahlo's face, the iconic uipil - the traditional clothing of the Mexican Indians. This red outfit had a special place in her wardrobe. Frida appears in it in many of the most recognizable self-portraits of the period, as well as in the famous series of photographs by Nicholas Murray.
"Diego and I" could be considered a double portrait. Kahlo placed a small image of Rivera in the center of her forehead to denote the place he occupied in her mind. This emotional work alludes to Diego's relationship with the Mexican film diva Maria Felix, whose sensual portrait he painted in the same year, 1949. There were numerous rumors about their relationship, and although Frida joked publicly about it, she was deeply hurt.
The artist's loose hair in this portrait (normally braided into tight braids) seems to almost suffocate her. Her cheeks are flooded with a thick blush and tears are streaming from her eyes. The three drops refer to the Madonna of Sorrows, an iconic image in the history of Western art.
The self-portrait "Diego and I" was painted specifically for Florence Arkin and her husband Sam Williams. This is evidenced by the inscription on the back of the panel: "To Florence and Sam with love from Frida. Mexico, June 1949.". Florence Arkin was a photographer, artist, educator and art promoter. Born in New York City to a family of Russian natives, she graduated from the Art Institute in Chicago and traveled to Mexico on behalf of the U.S. State Department on numerous occasions. In 1943, the Franklin Library in Mexico City hosted her solo exhibition, and Diego Rivera wrote the introduction to the exhibit catalogue.
As a photographer, Arkin led a project to document indigenous life and culture in the Americas. In 1943, she posed for Rivera and interviewed him for the book "Diego Rivera. The Shaping of the Artist, 1889-1921," which she published in 1971. She is credited with the remarkable photographs of Rivera and Kahlo at the Blue House. Arkin also assisted Kahlo in shipping her paintings between Mexico and the United States in the mid-1940s. These include the grandiose works that the Mexican artist sent to Julien Levy, her gallerist in New York.
When Frida Kahlo painted her self-portrait "Diego and I", she was clearly aware that her health was deteriorating. Soon after completing the painting, the artist was hospitalized for almost a year. Although she reconciled with Diego Rivera and they lived in a certain harmony, there came a point when Kahlo began to experience a point of no return. She recognized that the utopian plans she had made with Rivera would no longer come to fruition, and that World War II had established a new global order.
It was against this backdrop that Frida wrote a text commemorating her husband's 50th anniversary: "Perhaps some people hope to hear me complain about how much someone suffers by living with someone like Diego. But I don't believe that the banks of a river suffer because the water flows, or that the earth suffers because it rains, or that the atom suffers by releasing energy... to me everything has a natural compensation. My difficult and obscure role as an ally of the extraordinary has the character of the compensation that, for example, a green dot carries within a large area of red - the compensation of equilibrium." Probably these words explain the mysterious dots around the artist's head in the painting.
Self-portrait "Diego and I" twice set records. In 1990 it sold at Sotheby's for $1.4 million. This made Kahlo the first Latin American artist whose work at auction was sold for more than a million dollars. And at auction on November 16, 2021, the painting went for $34.9 millionThe panel was purchased by Argentine collector Eduardo Constantini, making it the most expensive work by a Latin American artist ever put up for public sale. The panel was purchased by the Argentine collector Eduardo Constantini.
Contrary to an oft-repeated legend, Frida Kahlo did not become an artist because she was bedridden after an accident in her youth. Her artistic vocation manifested itself in childhood and was nurtured by her father, a famous photographer and amateur painter.
It was then that Frida first encountered aesthetic portraiture and self-portraiture. She observed the faces of clients who posed for Guillermo Kahlo and engaged in retouching photographs, which required diligence and an inquisitive eye. As her father's favorite model, Frida learned how to pose in front of the camera lens. She also watched as Guillermo himself took dozens of self-portraits, trying to capture this or that facet of his personality.
During her formative years, Frida Kahlo began to study the history of Western art. She read illustrated biographies Leonardo da Vinci, Rembrandt van Rijn и Albrecht Dürer - artists who cultivated portraiture and self-portraiture. As a result, her work has combined many aesthetic and artistic references. Kahlo's self-portrait combines the techniques of both photography and painting by old masters.
"Diego and I." is characterized by painstakingly detailed images, complex iconography and a deeply personal narrative. All these are distinctive features of the mature period of Frida Kahlo's work. The painting, painted in 1949, was the last self-portrait of the 40s and the last completed shoulder self-portrait of her life.
After his second marriage to the famous muralist Diego Rivera the constantly experimenting Kahlo synthesized a wide variety of influences, ranging from Aztec and Oriental mythology to medicine and botany. At the same time she reached the peak of her technical prowess. In Diego and I, the artist clearly draws on the tradition of the pectoral self-portrait, which first gained popularity during the European Renaissance. Applying the motifs and techniques of the portrait painting of that period, she enters into a dialogue with such canonical masters as Albrecht Dürer.
Although much of the panel is occupied by Kahlo's face, the iconic uipil - the traditional clothing of the Mexican Indians. This red outfit had a special place in her wardrobe. Frida appears in it in many of the most recognizable self-portraits of the period, as well as in the famous series of photographs by Nicholas Murray.
"Diego and I" could be considered a double portrait. Kahlo placed a small image of Rivera in the center of her forehead to denote the place he occupied in her mind. This emotional work alludes to Diego's relationship with the Mexican film diva Maria Felix, whose sensual portrait he painted in the same year, 1949. There were numerous rumors about their relationship, and although Frida joked publicly about it, she was deeply hurt.
The artist's loose hair in this portrait (normally braided into tight braids) seems to almost suffocate her. Her cheeks are flooded with a thick blush and tears are streaming from her eyes. The three drops refer to the Madonna of Sorrows, an iconic image in the history of Western art.
The self-portrait "Diego and I" was painted specifically for Florence Arkin and her husband Sam Williams. This is evidenced by the inscription on the back of the panel: "To Florence and Sam with love from Frida. Mexico, June 1949.". Florence Arkin was a photographer, artist, educator and art promoter. Born in New York City to a family of Russian natives, she graduated from the Art Institute in Chicago and traveled to Mexico on behalf of the U.S. State Department on numerous occasions. In 1943, the Franklin Library in Mexico City hosted her solo exhibition, and Diego Rivera wrote the introduction to the exhibit catalogue.
As a photographer, Arkin led a project to document indigenous life and culture in the Americas. In 1943, she posed for Rivera and interviewed him for the book "Diego Rivera. The Shaping of the Artist, 1889-1921," which she published in 1971. She is credited with the remarkable photographs of Rivera and Kahlo at the Blue House. Arkin also assisted Kahlo in shipping her paintings between Mexico and the United States in the mid-1940s. These include the grandiose works that the Mexican artist sent to Julien Levy, her gallerist in New York.
When Frida Kahlo painted her self-portrait "Diego and I", she was clearly aware that her health was deteriorating. Soon after completing the painting, the artist was hospitalized for almost a year. Although she reconciled with Diego Rivera and they lived in a certain harmony, there came a point when Kahlo began to experience a point of no return. She recognized that the utopian plans she had made with Rivera would no longer come to fruition, and that World War II had established a new global order.
It was against this backdrop that Frida wrote a text commemorating her husband's 50th anniversary: "Perhaps some people hope to hear me complain about how much someone suffers by living with someone like Diego. But I don't believe that the banks of a river suffer because the water flows, or that the earth suffers because it rains, or that the atom suffers by releasing energy... to me everything has a natural compensation. My difficult and obscure role as an ally of the extraordinary has the character of the compensation that, for example, a green dot carries within a large area of red - the compensation of equilibrium." Probably these words explain the mysterious dots around the artist's head in the painting.
Self-portrait "Diego and I" twice set records. In 1990 it sold at Sotheby's for $1.4 million. This made Kahlo the first Latin American artist whose work at auction was sold for more than a million dollars. And at auction on November 16, 2021, the painting went for $34.9 millionThe panel was purchased by Argentine collector Eduardo Constantini, making it the most expensive work by a Latin American artist ever put up for public sale. The panel was purchased by the Argentine collector Eduardo Constantini.
