Frida Kahlo and Diego Rivera

By Ben Stephens.

When it comes to Mexican artists, there aren’t too many that get bigger than Diego Rivera and Fridha Kahlo. Rivera was renowned for his political and social movement murals that painted the Mexican way of life, exactly as he saw it. And Kahlo her beautiful and confronting portraits. Luckily enough, the good people at the Art Gallery of New South Wales and the Jacques and Natasha Gelman Collection are proud to announce that the Frida Kahlo and Diego Rivera Exhibition will be showing exclusively at AGNSW.

A little back story on the two – Rivera, born in 1886 shot to national and later international fame after he spent much of his youth in Paris, surrounded by many in the creative scene of the early 1900’s. Returning home, Diego found his work on large scale canvas and huge street murals as the best way to communicate the stories he wanted to tell. This lead him to America where he was commissioned to paint a number of pieces for the Ford Factory in Detroit, then later, Rivera was asked to paint for the Rockefellers at 30 Rock. Sadly Rockefeller didn’t enjoy the use of a Russian Revolutionary in the piece and demanded Rivera to rid it from the work. Rivera declined and the entire mural was painted over.

Upon his return to Mexico, Riveria fell madly in love with an up and coming artist herself, Frida Kahlo who was still in art school at the time. Over the next two decades the two shared a highly passionate, yet perilous marriage that saw them divorce, then later remarry. Fuelling each other with inspiration, Kahlo focused her work around self-portraits while, Rivera maintained his love with canvas murals.

Starting from June 25, AGNSW will be showing off over 40 pieces from the two artists with an accompanying work of 50 photographs of the two at work during the peak of their living careers, adding insights into the couples lives.

Frida Kahlo and Diego Rivera is on at the Art Gallery of NSW from June 25 to October 9, 2016.

Image: ‘Las dos Fridas’, Frida Kahlo, 1939. Oil on canvas, 173.5 cm × 173 cm (68.3 in × 68 in). Museo de Arte Moderno de México.