Jueves, part 1: Frida gets her own post

We slept in this morning and had a late and lazy breakfast. Elsa was feeling MUCH better and I had to stop her from eating everything from the breakfast buffet.

We took an Uber 6 miles South to the Frida Khako Museum in Coyoacàn.

Also known as “La Casa Azul”, the house is where Frida Khalo was born, in 1907, and died, in 1954. It is also her permanent resting place - her ashes rest in a simple urn on top of her bedroom dresser. While none of her more recognized works are shown, there are countless pieces from the artist that, together, paint a very clear - and troubled - portrait of the pain and suffering she endured, particularly towards the end of her life when she has undergone 22 surgeries and could barely stand up.

The house wraps itself around sumptuous gardens and terraces which showcase Frida’s passion for native plants and flowers and her husband Diego Rivera’s love of pre-Colombian art.

We took the audio guides and proceeded through each carefully curated room, from the living room, to the upstairs bedrooms, passing through the kitchen and, most impressively, Frida’s studio which brought me to tears. I only found out 30 minutes in that I had to buy a special photography pass in order to take photos so I have very few shots  of the artwork and interior.

Some of Khalo’s latest works are featured as well as paintings of her family and photos of her and Diego. The house and its collection paint a very accurate portrait of who she was not only as an artist but as a woman, a wife, a daughter, a political activist and a human who endured a lifetime of suffering. The temporary exhibition featuring her corsets and dresses really opened my eyes to her disabilities and to the many efforts she made to keep them hidden. It’s obvious how much her disabilities defined her art.

Little tidbits:  I knew about Frida’s  affair with Leon Trotsky but I had no idea that she and Diego Rivera orchestrated his asylum to Mexico and housed him in the Casa Azul.  I did not know she had had an affair with Isama Noguchi. He gifted her a beautiful framed collection of butterflies which is hung on the canopy of Frida’s deathbed, facing down. It could be the last thing she saw in the minutes before she died at the young age of 47. Finally, although her relationship with Rivera was fraught and complicated, he was clearly the great life of her life. After she died it was his idea to turn the house into a museum to her memory.