The Art of Frida

The Dolores Olmedo Museum has the world's largest collection of works by Frida Kahlo.  Two galleries of the museum are devoted to her art.  The last time I was at the museum, many years ago, the Kahlo paintings were not on display.  They were on tour outside of Mexico.  So I was interested in seeing the collection.

I know that many will disagree with me, but I have never been a big fan of Kahlo's art.  I was studying in Mexico in the 70s when I first saw any of her paintings.  At the time I thought, "Who is she, and what's the big deal?"  I think that a part of today's "Frida mania" is as much about the tragic and dramatic circumstances of her life as her artistic talent.  I feel that there are a number of other female artists from Mexico that deserve as much recognition.

Seeing the collection at the Olmedo Museum really did not really change my opinion of her.  One thing that I did note, however, was that her work did not consist solely of self portraits.  Every painting that I had seen previously was a depiction of herself with an occasional picture of her husband Diego Rivera thrown in.  It made me think that she was very self-centered.  This collection contained a number of portraits of other people. 

"Portrait of Luther Burbank"  1932

(Burbank was a famous botanist and horticulturist.)

 "Portrait of Alicia Galant"  1927

(Galant was a personal friend of Frida's)

"Nude of Eva Frederick" 1931

(This drawing was done while Frida was visiting California.  The identity of the subject is debated.  Some say that she was an acquaintance of Frida's; others say that she was a professional black model.)

"The Hand" 1930

"The Mask of Madness"  1945

"My Nurse and I"  1937

"A Few Small Nips" 1935

This grisly scene is based on a newspaper story about a man who murdered his girlfriend, and who in court later said, "I just gave her a few small nips."

"The Broken Column" 1944

"Without Hope"  1945

"Henry Ford Hospital"  1932

Frida traveled with Diego to Detroit when he was commissioned to paint a series of murals at the Detroit Institute of Art.  While in Detroit, Frida, who was three and a half months pregnant suffered a life-threatening miscarriage.

"Frida and the Miscarriage"  1932

"The Bus" 1929

This painting is a subtle allusion to the horrific bus accident in 1925 when she was an eighteen year old schoolgirl which left her with life-long pain.

"The Girl Virginia" 1929

"Portrait of Doña Rosita Morillo"  1944

The woman was the mother of Eduardo Morillo, a Mexican diplomat who commissioned Frida to paint several portraits of his family members.

"Self Portrait with Small Monkey"  1945

Pre-Hispanic and Folk Art

Although the Dolores Olmedo Museum is best known for its collection of paintings by Diego Rivera and Frida Kahlo, Olmedo was also an avid collector of pre-Hispanic and folk art.

Interspersed among the galleries of Rivera paintings are showcases filled with some of the more than 900 pieces of pre-Hispanic art that she collected.

As I mentioned before, she was very fond of "xolos", Mexican hairless dogs, and she collected earthenware figures of dogs from the ancient Colima culture of western Mexico.

Mayan incense burners

A monumental Mayan carving

A piece from the Zapotec culture

I assume that this was the kitchen in the original house.  It is decorated in a traditional style, and there are clay cooking pots.

A case filled with porcelain dinnerware

In the courtyard there were two "Trees of Life", large, elaborate clay pieces from the town of Metepec in the State of Mexico.

This one follows the original theme of "Trees of Life"... the Bible story of Adam and Eve.

Later artists created "Trees of Life" that have a wide variety of themes.  This one is a Day of the Dead tree with skeletons and skulls.

At the far end of the grounds is a building which I almost missed.  It contains some of Olmedo's extensive collection of Mexican handicrafts and folk art.  As I mentioned previously, Olmedo was an avid supporter of traditional Mexican culture, and she collected all things Mexican.

At the entrance, however, there was a grouping that I suspect was not a part of her collection, but something that was placed there to celebrate the World Cup games in Mexico.  It is a group of skeletons playing soccer.

Not all of the folk art is labeled.  I have seen enough Mexican handicrafts over the years that I could tell the origin of most of the pieces.

  Ceramic animal figures from the town of Tonalá in the state of Jalisco

The distinctive red glassware from Guadalajara, Jalisco

Masks from the state of Guerrero

"Cartonería" is the art of creating figures out of cardboard and papier mache.

A band of skeletal musicians of "cartonería"

Even though the eyebrows don't quite meet to form an unibrow, I think this skeleton is supposed to represent Frida Kahlo.

 Talavera pottery, a specialty of the city of Puebla

Two more "Trees of Life"

The famous black pottery from the town of San Bartolo de Coyotepec in the state of Oaxaca.

A clay jaguar figure from Amatenango del Valle in Chiapas.

Next we will begin to look at the museum's main claim to fame... its collection of paintings by Frida Kahlo and Diego Rivera, unsurpassed in the world.

Hurray! Problem solved!

Yesterday I thought that my hobby of blogging had come to an end when I was not able to insert any more photos.  (It would be such a boring blog if I couldn't put pictures in my entries.  The beauty of Mexico... as well as other places I've visited... demands photos!!!)

As I explained in the previous blog post, I had read that you can upload unlimited photos as long as they do not exceed 2048 pixels in either length or width.  I always reduce the size of my pictures before uploading them to the blog.  So what's the problem?  However, I was looking at how many bytes they were, instead of paying any attention to the pixels.  Upon closer examination there were more pictures in the albums that exceeded the pixel size than I realized.  I guess I had just reached the limit of storage space because of it.

I went back and removed one of those photos from a recent post.  That's all it took.  I made that picture smaller, and I was able to put it back.  I went to the blog post that I had started yesterday, and I had no problem at all uploading photos.  (That post will appear tomorrow.)  I am just going to have to be very careful to always check the pixels because I am apparently right at the brink of the limit.

A reader named Troy, who had never commented before, wrote that if I were unable to find a fix, that he would try to help.  That was so kind of him.  Much appreciated!

So, the Retired Teacher is back in business and will continue blogging as long as I am still alive and kicking, or until blogging has become so obsolete that Google eliminates Blogger. 

Has My Blog Reached the End of the Road?

I have been writing this blog since October of 2013.  Over those years I have written over 4500 posts, and the last several years I have been averaging more than one post per day.  Yesterday I was preparing a blog entry to publish this morning.  I was writing about the Dolores Olmedo Museum, and I had many photos of items from the museum's collection to include.  Suddenly, about half way through the entry, I was unable to insert any more photos.  I tried and tried but I couldn't upload photos from my laptop's photo files.  Thinking it might be some glitch, I tried signing out of Google, and then signing back in.  I turned off the laptop and then turned it on again.  This morning I tried to upload again, but with no luck. 

I looked at my storage on Google, and I have only used only14% of the space.  However when I clicked on Photos, the pictures that were there were mostly, but not entirely, photos that I took with my cell phone.  (I do not like taking pictures with my phone, but if I do not have my camera with me, or if a museum does not permit photos with a camera, I occasionally use it.)  Also, some of those pictures that I took with the phone are not even photos that I uploaded onto the blog. 

Somehow, I don't even remember how, I found that the bulk of the pictures that I have published on the blog, are in Google's media manager albums.  There are more 25,000 photos.  Before I upload pictures to my blog, I always reduce them in size.  I read somewhere else that if your photos are less than 2048 pixels in width or length, that they do not count against your storage allotment. I looked at the size of my photos in the albums.  The vast majority of the pictures are less than that size.  I am going to see if I delete some of the ones that are over that size, if I will be able to insert photos once again.

Fingers crossed. Hopefully I will be able to fix this, and I will be able to continue posting as I have for the last thirteen years.  

The Museum Grounds

As I said previously, it will take several posts to cover the Dolores Olmedo Museum.  

Dolores Olmedo (1908 - 2002) was a wealthy, self-made businesswoman, something of an rarity in that era in Mexico.  She was passionate about Mexican culture and socialized with many Mexico City intellectuals and artists.  She was good friends with the Diego Rivera and his wife Frida Kahlo and collected their paintings.

A photograph of Dolores Olmedo at the entrance to the museum

A statue of Olmedo, based on a portrait that Rivera did of her

She is dressed in the traditional attire of a Tehuana, a woman from the Isthmus of Tehuantepec.

A statue of Diego Rivera on the museum grounds

The museum is housed in a late 16th century hacienda called "La Noria" in the Mexico City district of Xochimilco.  In 1962 Olmedo purchased the property, restored it and made it her home.  In 1994 she donated the hacienda and her collection of art as a museum.

The hacienda buildings and the surrounding gardens are beautiful.

Roaming the grounds there are many peacocks.

Olmedo was very fond of "xolos", the breed of dog also known as the Mexican hairless.  Throughout her life she kept "xolos" as pets.  After her death, the museum decided to honor her love of the breed by keeping six of the dogs in a spacious enclosure on the grounds.

The plaque reads -

"Following the example of my mother, teacher María Patiño Suárez widow of Olmedo, who always told me to share everything that you have with your fellow human beings, I leave this house with all my art collections, the product of the work of my entire life, for the enjoyment of the Mexican people."

In the following blog posts we will look at her art collections.