Frida and Dr. Eloesser

Dr. Eloesser, who worked at the San Francisco General Hospital was a lifelong friend of Frida's after she visited San Francisco in her early 20s.

Read about their relationship in this article The Doctor and The Artist published by Stanford Medicine. This is a portrait Frida made of Dr. Eloesser and it is on display at Zuckerberg San Francisco General Hospital.

In 2005 I had the incredible opportunity to facilitate the loan of this paining to the Museo de Frida Kahlo for the first-ever exhibition of outside work brought into her blue house. You can read about my adventure.

Google Honors Diego Rivera's 125 Birthday

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

Intimate Portraits of the Immortal

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

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

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

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

Casa Bonampak

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 in Film

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.

San Francisco Bay Area artist Rupert Garcia

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.

Website celebrates Frida at 100

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.

Portrait of the Artists as a Young Couple

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

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

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?

SFMOMA 2008 Kahlo Exhibition

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

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

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.