Frida Kahlo, Diego Rivera, and 20th-Century Mexican Art
The problem of audience lies at the heart of one of modernism’s essential contradictions. Artists convinced that representations had power and consequences sought to destroy old ways of thinking by rearranging the visual world, hoping to be part of a new world built by workers and peasants for workers and peasants. They needed to speak directly to the public. In the words of a 1922 manifesto published by a coalition of technical workers, painters, and sculptors in Mexico City: “We repudiate so-called easel art and all such art which springs from ultra-intellectual circles, for it is essentially aristocratic. We hail the monumental expression of art because such art is public property.” At the same time, wealthy, cosmopolitan collectors like the Gelmans provided crucial support for these artists. This collection not only reflects the taste of the patrons but includes their likenesses.
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In contrast to these romanticized images of women is Kahlo’s portrait of her husband, which is like a police blotter photograph. Though full of detail and carefully tracing the planes of his face and his features, it doesn’t reveal anything. Rivera’s eyes are downcast, as if giving the painter license to observe him, but he refuses to show anything. While accomplished technically, this work retains the feeling of an illustration.
