MEXICO CITY (AP) — The long-held secrets and techniques of the Kahlo household, together with these of legendary artist Frida, are about to be unlocked for the world with the opening of the Casa Kahlo Museum this weekend.
Though situated very near the long-lasting Casa Azul in Coyoacán’s historic middle, the Casa Kahlo Museum is a distinct place with an intertwined historical past. This home belonged to Frida Kahlo’s dad and mom, who purchased it after giving her the Casa Azul — the place she grew up and lived with Diego Rivera — as a marriage present.
Whereas the Kahlo Home options parts acquainted to Frida Kahlo followers — like a conventional kitchen and backyard — its true worth is the brand new perspective it supplies on her life. It reveals intimate particulars about her close-knit household, together with her photographer father, Guillermo, and her sister and caregiver, Cristina.
“You can find a more humane approach to her story, to her origins,” said museum director Adán García, adding that visitors will see that behind the great artist was a child who “struggled with polio and who was fond of her father and her mother.”
Frida herself lived in the home for a time, and it was inhabited by her family members till simply two years in the past.
The Related Press took an unique tour of this new museum that features the one murals painted by Kahlo on document.
The basement
As a toddler, Frida Kahlo liked to gather bugs and use a microscope to see their wings. That microscope is within the basement of the Kahlo Home, a really particular place for the painter. It was there the place, already married to Diego Rivera, she used to discover a house for herself.
“When she fought with Diego, she would come here to the basement for refuge,” said Frida Kahlo’s great-niece, Mara Romeo Kahlo. “It was like her place of peace; this was her home.”
The basement additionally incorporates a distinctive assortment, together with votive choices painted by Frida and Asian dolls she bought throughout a visit to San Francisco.
The kitchen
Romeo Kahlo remembers having breakfast within the kitchen surrounded by murals of flowers and fruit bushes. The murals had been created by Frida and impressed by the crops present in the home’s backyard. The murals had been painted over throughout a kitchen modernization, which paradoxically helped protect them. After particular therapy, they will now be seen in all their splendor.
The murals bear an inscription that reads “the inn of the sparrows,” a Spanish pun on the phrase gorrones — or uninvited friends — that feels like gorriones (sparrows), who got here to eat on the home.
“Anyone who came, whether invited or not, could always find a place at this table,” mentioned García, the museum director.
The darkroom
Guests can step into the pictures studio of Frida’s father, the place an interactive digicam takes digital black-and-white images, demonstrating the method of growing on paper.
The museum additionally shows pictures of a younger Guillermo Kahlo and tells the story of how he arrived in Mexico from his native Germany. It additionally particulars his first marriage, his two daughters, and the way he met Frida’s mom, Matilde Calderón. A celebrated photographer, Kahlo was the primary official photographer for Mexican President Porfirio Díaz.
The opposite half Frida’s coronary heart
To ensure that Frida to endure the numerous surgical procedures she went by means of in her grownup life, she had somebody by her aspect who took care of her: her youthful sister Cristina.
“She used to talk about her like she was the other half of her heart,” García mentioned.
Cristina Kahlo, a single mom herself, based a charity to assist a whole bunch of different ladies in the identical scenario as her.
Each Saturday, Romeo Kahlo remembers, “the gate was opened here and a basic food basket was given for more than 500 single women.”
The brand new museum additionally highlights Frida’s relationship along with her mom, a determine who has been traditionally overshadowed by her father.
“The truth is that they had a close relationship,” Romeo Kahlo mentioned, noting that her great-grandmother Matilde was truly the primary to put on flowers in her hair — a glance lengthy related to Frida.
The household determined to color the home purple and hold it that manner over time, as a result of this colour symbolizes “the heart of the Kahlo family,” she mentioned.
Different notable objects
The museum supplies a glimpse into the Kahlo household’s intensive correspondence, together with letters from Frida marked with kisses of Mexican pink lipstick.
“These letters provided the guideline to write all these anecdotes that you’ll discover throughout the museum,” mentioned curator Adriana Miranda.
Guests will see clothes with intricate embroidery and items of pre-Hispanic jewellery that Frida famously wore in pictures.
The toilet is undamaged and remembers Frida Kahlo’s 1938 portray “What the Water Gave Me,” that includes her ft in a tub.
A hall shows a mirror that Frida had made for an exhibition in New York. In one other room, “A Tray of Poppies” — certainly one of Frida Kahlo’s first works — is on view.
A neighborhood structure
David Rockwell, an architect and board member of the Kahlo Basis, collaborated with the household to create the exhibition areas. Some sections such because the curved steps within the courtyard had been rebuilt to extra intently resemble the home in its authentic state.
He mentioned artists from throughout Mexico had been commissioned to create the totally different pots and items that make up the patio.
“The thing I love about this house is the warmth. The warmth of the material, the warmth of tile, the quality of the wood, the care that’s been taken into restoring it,” said Rockwell, noting the ceilings are a particular favorite material of the house. “All these ceilings are quite different, they all create different kinds of atmospheres and conditions.”
The museum is situated at Aguayo 54, within the Carmen neighborhood of Coyoacán in Mexico Metropolis.
