Frida Kahlo exhibition in Budapest explores Hungarian connection of the famous Mexican artist

Record ID: 1136873

  • Title: Frida Kahlo exhibition in Budapest explores Hungarian connection of the famous Mexican artist
  • Date: 6th July 2018
  • Summary: ***WARNING CONTAINS NUDITY*** DETAIL OF PAINTING "MY NURSE AND I" PAINTING "MY NURSE AND I"
  • Embargoed: 20th July 2018 10:39
  • Keywords: BudapestFrida Kahlo exhibition painter
  • Location: BUDAPEST, HUNGARY
  • City: BUDAPEST, HUNGARY
  • Country: Hungary
  • Topics: Art,Arts / Culture / Entertainment
  • Reuters ID: LVA0048NM1U0P
  • Aspect Ratio: 16:9
  • Story Text: Mexican artist Frida Kahlo professed herself to be part Hungarian yet until now her works have not made it to Hungary. Now, from July 7 - November 4, Hungarian art lovers will have the chance to see her paintings for the first time in Budapest.
    The Museo Dolores Olmedo of Mexico City, which has some of Kahlo's finest works in its collection, has loaned many of her outstanding works for the exhibition.
    Pain defined Kahlo's whole life and art in many ways. She suffered a bout of polio when she was a child that left one of her legs thinner. At 18, she broke her spine in a bus accident. Her leg was later amputated, and Kahlo dressed her prosthetic leg in a red leather boot with embroidered dragon motifs. She struggled with recurring illnesses, pain in her spine, endured over thirty operations and had three miscarriages. Kahlo wrote - displayed at the exhibit wall- "my painting contains in it the message of pain. Painting completed my life. I lost three children and a series of other things… My painting took the place of all this."
    Director of the Museo Dolores Olmedo, Carlos Phillips Olmedo said at the press viewing of the exhibit that each exhibit round the world shows something new of Frida. He said the Budapest one offered a deep understanding of Frida's life behind the paintings and how she overcame her sufferings.
    The uniqueness of the Budapest exhibit is the focus on Kahlo's Hungarian connections. Kahlo alleged of herself that she had Hungarian origins as her father's parents originated from Hungary, a town called Arad, which today is in Romania, Adriana Lantos, curator of the exhibition said. Olmedo said one of the reasons the Museo Dolores Olmedo participated in the exhibit was Kahlo's Hungarian roots.
    However, according to Lantos there is no hard evidence for Kahlo's Hungarian roots but the fact that she was insistent that she was partly Hungarian was a very interesting angle that was well worth exploring further.
    Some researchers believe that Kahlo's fascination with Hungary had to do with her emotions for her Hungarian lover, Nickolas Muray. Her relationship with the Hungarian photographer was long lasting, Muray being her third most important man in her life after her father and her husband Diego Rivera.
    A copy of the letter Kahlo wrote in Hungarian to Muray is on display at the exhibition.
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