Dear Sophie -
Dearest FRIDA KAHLO laid bare her inner life on her canvases, her loves and sadly her extensive suffering.
DIEGO RIVERA, her husband and love of her life tormented her with his betrayals. She suffered from terrible pain from a bus accident as a child and miscarriages. Oh but what a spirit. She relished all of the bounty her traditional Mexican culture offered, including its rituals,traditional crafts, dress, adornment and referenced the retablo form for her storytelling.
She brought a shock of vitality to the New York art scene in the 1940's, but she didn't like the United States and yearned to return home.
Her blue house and studio in Coyoacan, a suburb outside of Mexico City is a pilgrimage worth taking.
With love,
Mama
(This is a traditional retablo. They were executed by itinerant artists who traveled from town to town and were commissioned to illustrate expressions of gratitude which then adorned Mexican churches. Frida had a very large collection of them and they were clearly an inspiration).
