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56 V oiCeS of Mexico /January • March, 1995 brida y p i ego The Frida Kahlo vivieron en es-ta casa, Museum 1929-1954 t the beginning of the century, in Coyoacán —one of Mexico City's most beautiful and peaceful Aneighborhoods— Guillermo Kahlo built the house in which the story of one of the most interesting and controversial personalities of Mexican culture would unfold. It was there that Frida Kahlo was born on July 7, 1907. Her story —forty-four years of life- ends, prematurely and painfully, in the same place that it begins. At fifteen she suffered an accident when a bus that was taking her to school collided with a streetcar. The handrail went through her, leaving serious consequences for the rest of her life. Triple fracture of the pelvis and severe damage to the spine condemned her to immobility and long years of pain. Her biographers speak of more than twenty operations performed on the self-taught painter, corsets that confined her to bed, barely allowing the most indispensable movement and, in the end, the amputation of one leg, two years before her death. All this might lead one to view Frida's as a life full of limitations. Yet thanks to her vigorous spirit and indomitable character, she achieved her greatest aspirations —aspirations which took her to the margins of traditional values and morals. She lived as she wished, dressed as she wished, loved whom she wished, and there was practically nothing nor nobody that could keep her from expressing her feelings and passions in a way that, while others considered it extravagant, for her was full of meaning. 57 Stairwell with retablos. Frida Kahlo's photo by In the kitchen, Frida's and Diego 's names Lola Alvarez Bravo. are printed on tiny clay jugs. Photos of "The Central Post Office" (issue # 28) were also taken by Arturo Piera. (Editor's note.) Frida's bed. Frida said: "Why do 1 need feet when I have wings to jly with?" 58 V oiceS of Mexico /January • March, 1995 In the first room of the museum, which was the Kahlo family's living room and later Frida's first studio in • , the house, one can observe some of r/da y .L1 te2c the painter's works. Not all are vivieron en esta casa finished, but the "Portrait of Don 1929.1954 Guillermo Kahlo" and "My Grandparents, My Parents and I" stand out, as do some drawings copied from Frida's diary, such as "Why Do I Need Feet When I Have Wings to Fly With?" In the next room, which once functioned as a library, we are amazed at the collection of Olmec, Mixtec and Mayan pieces: carved jade and obsidian figures, earrings, necklaces, breastplates, and Oaxacan filigree Entrante of the "Blue House. " jewelry. Many were part of Frida's daily attire. In this same room we come across While still very young she they had been while she was alive, copies of passages from her diary, joined the Mexican Communist they were modified for the purpose messages and fond notes that Diego Party. In 1929 she married Diego of visibility. Closets, wardrobes and and Frida sent each other. The Rivera, one of the greatest Mexican file cabinets exchanged their heavy Tehuana dresses that Frida wore are muralists, who had already gained wooden doors for glass ones so that majestically displayed inside a large international prestige. visitors could see what was once glass case. In the kitchen and dining Diego's unending fondness for part of an intimate domain. Small room, the visitor is overwhelmed by women, combined with the painter's glass cases were designed in which the intensity of colors and the variety long romance with Cristina, Frida's visitors could see the contents of of shapes that characterize objects favorite sister, caused the couple letters and messages. In the kitchen destined for domestic use. A serious crises, which resulted in and dining room the clay pots, particularly Mexican flamboyance frequent separations. The most radical china and vases remain in their appears here as in no other part of the of these was in 1940 and led to original places. house. The simplicity and austerity of divorce. Despite these episodes, On entering the house visitors can the furniture, painted in lemon yellow, their emotional dependence was so see that the structure of the "Blue highlight the incredible variety of strong that on December 8th of the House" —so called because of the utensils and objects: casseroles, jugs, same year they were remarried. intense blue of its walls— is the same clay pots in every size; candelabras It was then that they moved into the as that of the city's typical old houses: with animal shapes; pitchers, glasses house in Coyoacán where Frida had a central U-shaped patio surrounded and crystal vases of blown glass in spent her childhood with her parents and by rooms. different tones of blue. sisters. This house would,eventually be During the most difficult stage of At the end of the dining room a converted into one of Mexico City's her illness, when she was close to door leads us to what was Frida and most charming museums. death, Frida adapted this patio so that Diego's first bedroom. In the final she could move more freely in her days before her death they slept The museum house wheelchair. A ramp runs next to the separately and this was Diego's room. Shortly after Frida's death, the poet stairs that lead to the first room of the His overalls and traditional sombrero Carlos Pellicer was commissioned to museum, making it easy to imagine hang on a hat rack, as if they were make the Coyoacán house into a Frida descending in her wheelchair. about to be used. museum, in honor of one of Mexico's The ironwork of the windows between In the stairwell beyond the dining greatest women and artists. the rooms and the patio is painted room visitors can admire one of the While Pellicer succeeded in green, as it was when the house was museum's most impressive maintaining Frida's things where lived in. collections. Retablos' with a 59 Voices of Mexico /January • March, 1995 The museum's garden. The visitor is overwhelmed by the intensity of colors. z Diego Rivera, Frida's Garden, oil on masonite, 1944. Part of the collection of Olmec, Mixtec and Mayan piqces. One can observe some of the painter's works. 1111111111111111111•1‹.1111111111111111111111 1E1111111111 111111.1111111 IEEE I 60 Voices of Mexico /January • March, 1995 Vestibule with large "Judases" and natural stone mosaic-decorated ceiling. remarkable variety of requests hang wall her books, imprisoned in large flowers and masks— look at us from on the walls, covering two of them glass cases. inside several glass cases. completely. Once again, At the end of the studio, on the We descend to the garden, finding "Mexicanness" —in this case right, in a small space that for many some large "Judases" and enormous connected to a religiosity deeply years was the entrance hall, we come cardboard heads adorning the rooted in the lower classes— is part of upon the bed from which, after having vestibule. The ceiling is decorated the surroundings Frida created lost a leg, Frida could see the garden. with a natural stone mosaic of the tenaciously throughout her life. The painting of a dead child with a Communist hammer and sickle as well The stairway leads to the newer bunch of flowers on its abdomen as a comet. Juan O'Gorman part of the house, built by Diego —Frida's work— guards the head of acknowledged that this mosaic was an around 1940. At the top is a long room the bed. From the opposite side we important antecedent for the murals he in the form of an "L" profusely find images of Trotsky, Lenin, Stalin, created using this technique in the illuminated by three enormous Marx and Mao. central library at the National windows, through which one can see We enter the large rectangular University campus. the old ash trees in the garden; this room that was Frida's previous Leaving the vestibule, on the was Frida's studio. The objects are bedroom. The canopied bed is adorned upper part of the walls we see inlaid placed as if she were still living. In the with figures of death made of glue and clay pots; a high wall leading to the center, on a large worktable, we see paper, small "Judases" and a neat roof has enormous sea shells brushes and spatulas; further on, the collection of dried butterflies hanging embedded in the stones. wheelchair, an easel, and on a large from the ceiling. An infinite collection At the end of the garden, the of diminutive objects —sugar skulls, vision of a pyramid brings us back to I Popular paintings made to give thanks to carnival toys, little boxes, paper other ages and places. It is a stepped God or the Virgin for some favor. pyramid, on which Diego placed some age), oilonmasonite,1937. The DeceasedDimasRosas The Bus, oil oncanvas,1929. (at 3yearsof The Dolores Olmedo Museum Collection. The Dolores O lmedo Mu seum Co llec t ion. Henry FordHospital, oil onlamina,1932. The Dolores Olmedo Museum Collection. A FewPricks, oil onlamina,1935. The Dolores Olmedo Museum Collecti 62 V oiCeS of Mexico /January • March, 1995 of the figures from his collection of social life. She liked to share a few her life when they amputated her archeological pieces, which numbered drinks with her friends in places with leg— she managed to channel into around 55,000.

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