Frida Kahlo in San Francisco

Google Honors Diego Rivera's 125 Birthday

2011-12-08T07:44:00.001-08:00

Notice Frida (or are there two Frida's?) in the lower right corner.

Ghetto Frida

2009-08-21T19:56:00.000-07:00

Check Rio Yanez's fantastic Ghetto Frida artwork and his Ghetto Frida Mural film.

Felted Frida Portrait

2009-07-02T10:08:00.001-07:00

I created this felted portrait of Frida which will be in The Many Faces of Frida exhibition in Oakland, CA, July 13-August 28, 2009 hosted at teh STate of California Office Building, 1515 Clay Street.

Summer in the City

2009-04-21T16:27:00.001-07:00

It may only be April 21 but it is summer in San Francisco. Hot and a bit humid. I was in a meeting this morning and someone made an interesting observation about San Franciscans - they stop functioning in the heat. We're only having 80s and 90s, mild compared to Houston, but the entire city slows down to a crawl and people call in sick to work - not just to hang out at the park.

I, however, am at school preparing my Statistics final paper.

Intimate Portraits of the Immortal

2009-04-21T16:23:00.001-07:00

Lincart Gallery located at 1632 C Market Street in San Francisco has a fantastic photo exhibition

of Frida images. I stopped in quickly today to get a look between my various meetings. Holding out for a more extensive visit with my friend Rachel-Anne. This image is the front window of the gallery. The space is fantastic and hidden away behind Zuni Cafe. Show runs April 18 - May 23, 2009.

Frida's Bed: A Novel

2009-03-28T19:10:00.000-07:00

Frida's Bed by Slavenka Drakulic

I recently read this novel about Frida Kahlo and very much enjoyed Slavenka Drakulic's interpretation of Frida's inner-most thoughts about her family and love relationships. A quick and interesting read.

Rachel's Frida Dress

2009-03-22T22:56:00.000-07:00

Yesterday was the closing day of San Jose Museum of Art's Frida Kahlo exhibition. Unfortunately it was not well advertised as the central piece was by artist Rachel-Anne Palacios.

She re-created a larger-than-life version of the self-portrait Frida made for Trotsky. Exhibition attendees were then invited to create butterflies with messages for Frida or anyone they wanted to remember. These were pinned to the curtains, creating a cloud of beautiful colors. There are so many that each day the staff removed the old butterflies to make room for new ones. Rachel is going to save some and hopefully take them to Museo Frida Kahlo. The rest will be burned in a ceremony to commemorate Frida.

Frida Kahlo: Portraits of an Icon

2009-03-17T20:01:00.000-07:00

Just five days before it closes I found out about the San Jose Museum of Art exhibition Frida Kahlo: Portraits of an Icon. Checking it out this weekend!

Saturday, October 11, 2008 through Sunday, March 22, 2009

Shedding light on the life and art of Frida Kahlo (1907 – 1954), this exhibition features approximately fifty photographic portraits of the legendary Mexican artist. Drawn from the collection of Spencer Throckmorton, a specialist in Latin American photography, the exhibition includes works by several of the most renowned photographers of the twentieth century: Manuel Alvarez Bravo and Nickolas Muray.

Image: Photo by Nickolas Muray Frida Kahlo on White Bench #30, 1938 Color Carbon Print Image: 14 ½ x 11 ½ inches © Nickolas Muray Photo Archive

Call for Submissions

2009-03-17T19:51:00.000-07:00

Curator Rachel-Anne Placios has put out a call for entries for the July 13 - August 28, 2009 exhibition The Many Faces of Frida. The venue is a the arts collaboration of the City of Oakland, State of California Craft and Cultural Arts Gallery located in the State of California Office Building, 1515 Clay Street-Atrium in Oakland, CA.

Application available online.
Open to artists of all ages from the Bay area and beyond!
Submissions deadline: Friday, May 1, 2009

Re-Inspired!

2009-03-17T19:40:00.000-07:00

This week I had the pleasure of meeting San Francisco Bay Area artist and curator Rachel-Anne Palacios who is all things Frida Kahlo. She has totally re-inspired me to post about Frida.

Visiting Frida Kahlo Exhibition at SFMOMA

2008-07-25T07:40:00.000-07:00

Last night I got together a group of San Francisco friends and we went to see the Frida Kahlo show at SFMOMA. Thursday nights tickets are half price and the museum is open until 9pm. We made a fantastic evening of the exhibition followed by dinner at Maya a modern Mexican cuisine restaurant located a few blocks from the museum.

We were very lucky that my friend Thelma is a docent at SFMOMA and took us around the exhibition. If you can, try to get a docent tour. It makes all the difference. Thelma highlighted just a few images and used those to highlight the monumental events in Frida's life - her accident, marriage to Diego and miscarriages.

We started at the San Francisco wedding portrait Freida and Diego Rivera, 1931 and Thelma asked us to point out what we noticed about the image. The difference between the two figures was the most obvious - that one is large and monochromatic and the other, Frida, is small and brightly colored. We discussed her traditional clothing and the delicate placement of their hands. An interesting element that I hadn't noticed is that Diego is the one holding the paintbrushes and palette although Frida was the painting's artist.

Thelma took us to The Two Fridas, 1939 and we immediately noticed the similar clasp of the two Fridas' hands. In this image the Frida on the right holds a small portrait of Diego as a small boy. From it there is a vein that wraps around her arm, connects to a human heart, crosses over her shoulder and around the back and neck of the left Frida and to her broken heart and continues to this Frida's lap where she holds medical scissors that attempt to stop its slow bleeding. Thelma pointed out that this is one of the first known double self-portraits. It was painted when Frida and Diego were between marriages.

The final image we viewed was The Love Embrace of the Universe, the Earth (Mexico), Diego, Me and Senor Xolotl, 1949. In the center is a nude Diego being embraced by Frida who is embraced by the earth which is embraced by the universe. Frida is in a nurturing role but she cries and her heart bleeds. It is Mother Earth who is fertile. Diego, with his third eye has the wisdom as well as the source of fuel - fire, held in his embrace.

Although I have seen many of these images in Museo Frida Kahlo and Museo Dolores Olmedo in Xochimilco, Mexico City, there were some new images. Plus, to my delight and surprise the Portrait of Doctor Eloesser was there. He looked like there had been additional restoration work done on his face and hair beyond the work that the Museo Dolores Olmedo restores performed in 2005. There was no reason to be surprised to see him there considering that the image lives in the San Francisco General Hospital. Perhaps it was more the joy of seeing an old friend.

Fantastic additions to the exhibition included a small gallery of artifacts from Frida and Diego's stay in San Francisco including their marriage license. (So fantastic that I was married in the same city hall and have the same marriage license nearly 90 years later). Another gallery had dozens of never-before-seen original photos of Frida, Diego, their friends and family.

Although it was very crowded and our little docent tour kept picking up folks we had a fantastic and somewhat intimate view of the exhibition with Thelma's guidance. A real joy was a little girl who attended with her mom - both were dressed in traditional Mexican dresses and the girl had a hairpiece that made her look like Frida with braids and flowers in her hair. It was wonderful. Both gift shops offered many of these items and other Mexican crafts. It made me want to return to Mexico City and purchase thousands of paper flowers to fill my bedroom.

SFMOMA has an interactive online education site about Frida that you can access here.

This is a street banner in the Mission District for the exhibition.

Casa Bonampak

2008-07-16T22:17:00.000-07:00

Now that I am again living in the San Francisco Bay Area there will be more posts of Frida in SF. Here is a fantastic little store I found in the Mission District, Casa Bonampak, a Fair Trade store located at 3331 24th Street between Mission and Valencia just half a block up from the 24th Street BART Station

Frida Kahlo Exhibition at SFMOMA opens June 14 2008

2008-06-11T04:56:00.001-07:00

SFMOMA presents an exhibition simple titled Frida from June 14 - September 28, 2008.

Along with the exhibition are excellent educational programmes including: Learning from Frida Kahlo: Exploring Identity in Modern and Contemporary Art Julie Charles, associate curator, education, SFMOMA Alison Gass, assistant curator, painting and sculpture, SFMOMA Thursdays, July 17 - August 14, 20086:30 p.m. - 9:30 p.m.UC Berkeley Extension, 95 Third Street, San Francisco Taking Kahlo's work as its starting point, this course explores how other artists tackle themes of identity. Charles and Gass position Kahlo within a broader context of art history, using this expanded field as a means of defining the ways in which art reflects and constructs our understanding of ourselves, others, and the world we live in. Themes include the cult of the artist, artistic partnerships, the body, nationalism, portraiture, and Surrealism.

One semester unit of academic credit in art history. To enroll, call 510.642.4111 and reference course number EDP014985. More info here.

Good thing I'll be living back in San Francisco during the exhibition!

Frida in Film

2008-03-01T10:09:00.000-08:00

In 2005 the Tate Modern in London presented the film series Angel of Fire: Frida Kahlo Film Programme.

"The Frida Kahlo film programme celebrates Mexico’s rich cinematic history. The series draws on a broad range of documentary and feature films that illuminate Kahlo’s involvement in Mexico’s cultural and political landscape and examines her complex personal relationships. Free programmes of documentaries about Kahlo are held on Sunday afternoons throughout the exhibition's run."

Films shown included:

A Woman in Love (Enamorada)
The Life and Death of Frida Kahlo
¡Que Viva Mexico!
The Life and Times of Frida Kahlo
The Iron Fist (El Puño de Hierro)
Frida Kahlo and Tina Modotti
Aventurera
Macario
Reed: Insurgent Mexico
Frida, Naturaleza Viva
Angel of Fire (Angel de Fuego)
Perfume de Violetas (Violet Perfume)
Nazarín

I visited the Tate's Frida Kahlo exhibition, at which these films were presented, having recently been to Mexico City. I was there at the invitation of Museo Dolores Olmedo to officially witness the removal and crating of her Dr. Eloesser portrait back to San Francisco. Unfortunately I did not see any of these films. I am particularly interested in UK-based Professor/filmmaker Laura Mulvey's film Frida Kahlo and Tina Modotti. Perhaps it can be found on the internet. I will continue to explore.

Not on this list is the feature film Frida by Julie Taymor.

Homenaje a Frida Kahlo Galeria de la Raza

2008-02-14T12:21:00.000-08:00

Galeria de la Raza located in San Francisco's Mission District presented the exhibition Homenaje a Frida Kahlo in November 2, 1978 - January 12, 1979. Images from the exhibition including a mural by Michael V Rios exhibition poster by artist Rupert Garcia both featuring Kahlo can be viewed online. Galeria de la Raza is under the Executive Direction of Carolina Ponce de Leon who is one of the most inspirational women I met in my post as Director of Arts & Business Partnerships at Business Arts Council in San Francisco.

Frida's Astrological Chart

2008-02-12T11:39:00.000-08:00

The things you find on the web. Here is Frida's astrological chart from the webiste Lois Rodden's AstroDataBank. The website also has an interesting take on Frida's bio. If you know how to read these charts perhaps you can make heads or tails of her stay in San Francisco.

Here's how Rodden plotted the chart:

Birth Date:
07/06/1907 (July 6, 1907)
Birth Time:
08:30 (8:30 AM) (+6:36:40)
Birth Place:
Coyoacan, Mexico
Latitude / Longitude:
19 N 20 / 99 W 10
Rodden Rating / Source:
AA / Quoted BC/BR
Source Notes:
LMR quotes Hayden Herrera in his biography "Frida," where he pictures her B.C.
Top

Interpretive Reports
Check these chart interpretations:
From the Indra Report from Kepler.
From the Merlin Report from Kepler.
From the The Sky Within Report from Matrix.
From the Professional Natal Report from Astrolabe.

San Francisco Bay Area artist Rupert Garcia

2008-01-27T11:10:00.000-08:00

Rupert Garcia, a renowned San Francisco Bay Area Artist represented by Rena Bransten Gallery has made artwork featuring Frida Kahlo and also presented lectures on her work. In 2004 I had the pleasure of working with Rupert within the Hearts in San Francisco project of which I was Project Coordinator. He designed one of the giant Heart sculptures which was placed in public view during the city-wide exhibition.

If I had known before today that he was so fond of Frida Kahlo I would have spent more time talking with him about his studies on her life and work.

Dr Eloesser's Last Will and Testament

2008-01-12T09:07:00.000-08:00

Amazing what you can find on the internet. In a 2007 article discussing the alleged inappropriate use Dr. Eloesser's bequest to a Quaker Charity to benefit medical students the publication AboutPhilly.com has posted a PDF version of Dr. Eloesser's Last Will and Testament. Although there is no mention of Frida or Diego it does give some insight into his personality.

Dr. Leo Eloesser's Last Will and Testament.

The Will was drafted and signed in San Francisco in 1975 and he died in Mexico in 1976 at the age of 95.

The Hoover Institution Papers Contain Frida Kahlo Content

2008-01-12T08:22:00.000-08:00

The San Francisco Bay Area is home to Stanford University which houses the Hoover Institution that holds documents related to Frida Kahlo in archive of Bertram David Wolfe and Dr. Leo Eloesser. Both were friends with Frida Kahlo and Diego Rivera.

About Wolfe (from Wikipedia) "Bertram David Wolfe (January 19, 1896 – February 21, 1977) was an American scholar and former Communist best known for writing Three Who Made a Revolution (1948), a biographical study of Lenin, Stalin and Trotsky, and The Fabulous Life of Diego Rivera (ISBN 0-8128-1259-X)." The Wolfe Paper Archives which are the papers were donated by his wife Ella Goldberg Wolfe who donated them when she died on 8 January 2000. Ella was friends with Kahlo and wrote letters.

Link to summary of Wolfe papers

Bert Wolfe paper archives related to Frida Kahlo:
Correspondence 1913 - 1997
[ Folder 55 ]Rivera, Frida Kahlo de, 1933-1946 (8)

Speeches and writing 1914 - 1976
[ Folder 27 ] Frida Kahlo de Rivera (in Spanish), Letras de Mexico, November 1938. Printed copy

Subject file 1903 - 1977
[ Folder 27 ]Rivera, Frida Kahlo

Dr. Eloesser was born in San Francisco in 1881 and Frida was his patient at the San Francisco General Hospital.

Link to summary of Dr. Eloesser's paper which contain content related to Frida Kahlo. Unfortunately no list of content provided on Hoover Institution website.

Website celebrates Frida at 100

2008-01-12T07:59:00.000-08:00

A new bilingual Spanish/English website commemorating the 100th anniversary of Frida's birth, July 6 1907, was launched in January 2008 and is a superb resources for information about her life and art.

Excellent photos of Frida in San Francisco.

Visit Frida Kahlo Fans here.

Tacoma Art Museum Frida Kahlo Curriculum Guide for Teachers

2007-12-21T06:05:00.000-08:00

Tacoma Art Museum presented Frida Kahlo: Images of an Icon photographic exhibition February 3 - June 10, 2007 and the adjacent exhibition Northwest Visions of Frida Kahlo. The museum's education department created a superb Curriculum Guide. It includes discussion topics, a timeline of Frida's life, photographer bios, vocabulary definitions from terms used related to Frida's life and a bibliography.

The museum has done a fantastic job of linking Frida to contemporary issues and iconography. This is a tremendous resource for Elementary and High School teachers.

Although this is not in San Francisco there are many San Francisco references in the Curriculum Guide and photographer bios.

Summary of exhibition:
Images of an Icon offers a means of seeing Frida Kahlo’s world through the eyes of those who surrounded her. Modern masters of the camera such as Lucienne Bloch, Emmy Lou Packard, Florence Arquin, and Manuel Alvarez Bravo, as well as leading photojournalists such as Giselle Freund, Bernard Silberstein, and Fritz Henle captured her in their lenses. Kahlo’s relatives, lovers, and friends, including Guillermo Kahlo, Nickolas Muray, and Lola Alvarez Bravo were witness to a more intimate Frida. The images span Kahlo’s life and follow the artist from precocious child to famous artist. They permit a look into her bedroom, a seat at her table, a visit to her hospital room, a stroll through her garden, and a view into her collections. There is an ancillary component to the exhibition featuring the work of Northwest artists who have been inspired by Kahlo, the artist and icon.

Portrait of the Artists as a Young Couple

2007-12-21T05:55:00.000-08:00

A portrait of Frida and Diego in San Francisco from Vanity Fair (September 1931): pg. 63.
Peter A. Juley & Son, photographic firm.
Juley, Paul, 1890-1975, photographer.

Image taken in 1930 or 1931. Details about the print available at Smithsonian American Art Museum Photograph Archives Catalog.

50th Anniversary of Diego Rivera's Death

2007-12-11T09:04:00.001-08:00

According to the Virtual Diego Rivera Web Museum website 24 November 2007 was the 50th anniversary of Diego Rivera's death. The museum has a fantastic Adobe Flash video of Frida and Diego on its homepage.

Both Frida and Diego's last paintings are of watermelons. It is heartbreaking to see the images side by side.

Frida Kahlo, Sandías con leyenda: Viva la vida”(Watermelons with legend: The life lives), 1954

Diego Rivera, Watermelons, 1957

Frida and Diego at Cathay House restaurant

2007-12-11T08:21:00.000-08:00

The Virtual Museum of the City of San Francisco (formerly the Museum of the City of San Francisco) posted this news clipping and photo from San Francisco Life on their website. It pictures Frida and Diego in the Cathay House restaurant 718 California Street at Grant Avenue in March 1941.

Cathay House restaurant is still in the same location, San Francisco's Chinatown. Unfortunately online reviews call it a disappointing tourist trap. It is a fantastic building - view images.

Did Frida turn heads in her native attire or even then were San Franciscans unfazed by unique characters?

Photos of Frida in San Francisco from Peter A. Juley & Son Collection

2007-11-23T10:59:00.000-08:00

Photographic Archives of the Smithsonian American Art Museum include 127,000 black and white images from the Peter A. Juley & Son Collection. The Smithsonian Institution Research Information System is an online archive of the images which include several superb photographs of Frida and Diego with their friends in San Francisco.

To view the images follow this link and type Frida Kahlo into the General Keyword search.

Pablo Picasso Earings

2007-11-18T13:55:00.000-08:00

I've uploaded the video La Real Frida Kahlo to the blog from YouTube. Watching it I realised that I've never actually seen "live" footage of Frida. Notice in the closing sequence she is wearing the hand-shaped earings that Pablo Picasso gave her as a gift. Diego Rivera depicts here in these earings in his The Pan American Unity mural at the City College of San Francisco. She wears these same earings in Self Portrait Dedicated to Dr Eloesser 1940 (pictured right).

If you visit the Museo Frida Kahlo in Coyoacán, Mexico you can see one of these earings, discovered in a storage box in 2005, displayed in a glass case in her painting studio. If I recall correctly it is cracked - missing a finger.

SFMOMA 2008 Kahlo Exhibition

2007-11-09T11:48:00.000-08:00

Notice of an upcoming Frida Kahlo exhibition at the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art honoring her 100th birthday.

Frida Kahlo
Saturday, June 14, 2008 – Sunday, September 28, 2008
In celebration of the 100th anniversary of Frida Kahlo’s birth, this exhibition—organized by SFMOMA and the Walker Art Center with renowned Kahlo biographer Hayden Herrera—brings together approximately 50 paintings spanning the artist’s career, from 1926 to 1954. Focusing on Kahlo’s hauntingly seductive and often brutal self-portraits, the presentation will elucidate the progression of her practice, reflecting both her private obsessions and political concerns. In conjunction with the exhibition, the Museum will present a small selection of photographs from the Vicente Wolf Photography Collection, including portraits of Kahlo by preeminent photographers of the period, as well as personal snapshots of the artist with family and friends from the artist’s own photo albums—some of which have never before been published or exhibited.

A major publication with newly commissioned essays, bibliography, exhibition history, and illustrated timeline, will accompany the exhibition.

Exhibition Tour
Premiere Walker Art Center, Minneapolis, Minnesota October 27, 2007–January 20, 2008
Philadelphia Museum of Art, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania February 20 –May 18, 2008
San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, San Francisco, California June 14–September 16, 2008

The Mural Maze

2007-11-04T10:30:00.000-08:00

This week the Financial Times published The Mural Maze, an article by Jane Urs-Smith, about the murals of San Francisco and centering around Diego Rivera. A brief mention of Frida Kahlo in the final paragraph.

The article includes a helpful list of mural touring links.

Ure-Smith concludes by advocating for the relocation of Diego's "Pan American Unity" mural from its obscure location at City College to San Francisco Museum of Modern Art if they can find the space.

"On my last day, I sped down the freeway to City College’s Ocean Avenue campus to revisit “Pan American Unity” (1940), the third Rivera work in San Francisco. Arriving with what I thought was 10 minutes to spare, I found the theatre locked and in darkness. An assistant to the dean of arts eventually let me in but not before she’d lectured me about burglar alarms and cops and how she took the rap every single time – but what did a selfish soul like me care?

I didn’t. Instead, I felt annoyed that this magnificent 22-metre work – a call for American solidarity in the face of the growing threat of fascism, with Hitler, Frida Kahlo and Charlie Chaplin among its characters – is locked away in a dusty campus theatre lobby and only available to the public for two or three hours a day. Unlike most frescoes, this one is on 10 moveable panels. If San Francisco’s Museum of Modern Art has a big white space to spare, that’s where this Rivera should be."

The mural maze
By Jane Ure-Smith
Published: November 2 2007 17:05 Last updated: November 2 2007 17:05

My Beloved Doctor - a friendship in letters

2007-11-03T08:18:00.000-07:00

Museo Frida Kahlo, in September 2007, published a bilingual book of letters between Frida Kahlo and Dr. Eloesser called My Beloved Doctor, the term Kahlo used to address her dear friend.

Read the UK Guardian's article about the book Frida Kahlo's last secret finally revealed.

Inspiration for this blog

2007-11-03T07:18:00.000-07:00

In 2005 I had the opportunity to work with the San Francisco General Hospital Foundation, UCSF Medical Center Dean's office, Consul General of Mexico in San Francisco , Museo Frida Kahlo, and Museo Dolores Olmedo in negotiating the restoration and loan of a pair of paintings "La Tortillera", painted in 1926 by Rivera and Kahlo's 1931 "Portrait of Dr. Leo Eloesser. The paintings were loaned to Museo Frida Kahlo for an exhibition exploring her friendship with Dr. Eloesser and was called The Three Friends.

I followed the paintings on their journey to the Museo de Frida Kahlo exhibition. It was an emotional exchange as it was Frida's painting's first visit to Mexico. The experience changed my life and she has become an inspiration to me and the creation of this blog is to share my passion with others who are interested in discovering Frida in San Francisco.

The paintings hang in lobby of San Francisco General Hospital Medical Center at 1001 Potrero Avenue (between 22nd St & 23rd St) in San Francisco.

Top left: Portrait of Dr. Eloesser by Frida Kahlo, 1931

Bottom right: La Tortillera by Diego Rivera, 1926