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Diego Rivera Y Frida Kahlo En Europa Leila Gómez University of Colorado at Boulder

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Diego Rivera Y Frida Kahlo En Europa Leila Gómez University of Colorado at Boulder Viajeros controversiales en lugares míticos: Diego Rivera y Frida Kahlo en Europa Leila Gómez University of Colorado at Boulder Resumen Se estudia el viaje de Diego Rivera a la Unión Soviética en 1927, para el décimo aniversario de la Revolución, y el viaje de Frida Kahlo a París en 1939 para exponer en la exhibición “Mexique” organizada por el surrealista André Breton. En ambos casos se analiza el traslado de los objetos artísticos (acuarelas, cuadernos de dibujos, cuadros) y su contextualización en museos y exhibiciones siguiendo las propuestas de Bruno Latour y Bill Brown sobre la “Teoría de las cosas”. Aunque en el período la Unión Soviética y París constituían espacios míticos para los artistas e intelectuales latinoamericanos, tanto Rivera como Kahlo realizan viajes a contra- corriente del estereotípico viaje del artista latinoamericano en Europa. Introducción: Viajes a lugares míticos Existió durante el siglo XIX y buena parte del XX un estereotipo sobre el viajero latinoa- mericano a Europa. Se trataba del clásico viaje de iniciación de artistas e intelectuales al Viejo Mundo, donde las ciudades europeas, sobre todo París, eran la fuente de cultura prestigiosa y hacia donde se proyectaban los sueños de consagración futura, que muchas veces termina- ban en el fracaso.1 No es habitual encontrar viajeros que se hayan salido de las trayectorias y experiencias vitales más comunes de latinoamericanos en Europa. Diego Rivera y Frida Kahlo realizaron cada uno por separado un viaje a contracorriente, en parte por haber llegado a sus respectivos destinos cuando ya eran pintores establecidos y famosos en México, en Estados Uni- dos y también en Europa. Diego Rivera viaja a Moscú en 1927, como invitado especial durante las celebraciones de los diez años de la revolución de octubre,2 y Frida Kahlo viaja a París en 1939, en los umbrales de su divorcio con Rivera, invitada por el poeta André Breton para exponer en la galería de Renou y Colle. Kahlo interactúa en París, además de con Bretón, con pintores 1 Entre otros, se pueden mencionar a los argentinos Esteban Echeverría, Domingo F. Sarmiento, al colom- biano Jorge Isaacs, al nicargüense Rubén Darío, al uruguayo Horacio Quiroga, a los brasileños Oswald de Andrade y la pintora Tarsila do Amaral, y muchos otros. 2 Es necesario decir que Diego Rivera sí tuvo un viaje iniciático a Europa (1907-1910), donde conoció a su pri- mera esposa, la pintora rusa Angelina Beloff. Formado en la Academia de San Carlos, Diego Rivera había aprendi- do técnicas de pintura de tradición europea con maestros españoles, en su mayor parte, que desalentaban estéticas locales. Uno de sus últimos maestros, Dr. Atl, lo incentivó a realizar este viaje, donde profundizaría en el apren- dizaje de las escuelas contemporáneas europeas de pintura. El viaje fue financiado con una beca del gobierno de Porfirio Díaz. En 1910 regresó a México, justo a los inicios de la revolución para pronto volver a partir a Europa e ins- talarse allí por los próximos 10 años, es decir que Diego Rivera no vivió en México durante los años de la revolución; esta década la pasó en Europa, con la pintora y también con grandes amistades como Pablo Picasso, Modigliani, Best Maugard. Son estas amistades las que le hablaron a Rivera de su mexicanidad, y de la revolución mexicana, y de la revolución rusa. Durante esta segunda estadía en Europa (1911-1921), Rivera comienza a ser conocido y es aquí cuando recibe la invitación de Vasconcelos para ser uno de los muralistas de la revolución. Diego acepta y viaja antes a Italia para aprender la técnica del fresco que le servirá en la pintura mural. Entonces regresa a México (Ver Hamill, Pete, Diego Rivera. New York: Harry N. Abrams, INC. Publishers, 1999. pp. 17-81). 5 - Hispanic Studies Review - Vol. 3, No. 2 (2018): 5-19 famosos como Yves Tanguy, Pablo Picasso y Wassily Kandinsky. Este viaje es interesante no sólo porque Frida detesta París, hasta a afirmar en sus cartas a Nick Murray que los intelectuales parisinos le dan asco, que no soporta la suciedad de París, que la exhibición de Pierre Colle le pareció nebulosa, “invadida por una banda de hijos de puta que son los surrealistas”, que lo que exponían sobre México eran “mamarrachadas”, y que gente como esa era la que provocaba “el surgimiento de Hitler y Mussolini” (Le Clézio 148). En este contexto se vuelve importante analizar la circulación de los objetos artísticos, en este caso los cuadros de Frida Kahlo y Diego Rivera. En el caso de Kahlo, desde México a Pa- rís, y el valor o capital simbólico asignado a los mismos en lo referente a la “mexicanidad” en los círculos del Surrealismo. Como es sabido los surrealistas André Bretón y Antonin Artaud viajaron a México para encontrar en sus culturas antiguas las fuerzas ocultas del inconsciente de la humanidad, y la relación entre lo onírico y lo real. En el caso de las acuarelas de Rivera, estas fueron pensadas originalmente como bosquejos para dos murales en el Club del Ejército Rojo en Moscú, que el ministro de cultura soviético, Anatoly Lunacharscky, le había encargado a Diego, pero el proyecto nunca se concretó, lo que hizo que las acuarelas viajaran de vuelta a México y de allí a Nueva York pasando a integrar más tarde una de las colecciones del MoMA. Estos desplazamientos de las acuarelas revelan las diatribas del pintor con el partido comunista y su amistad/enemistad con León Trotsky. Si México ocupa el lugar del mito en el imaginario surrealista, en el ideario político del pe- ríodo, las revoluciones habían convertido tanto a México como a la Unión soviética en espacios utópicos. La URSS era también un lugar mítico, como lo había sido y seguía siendo París por otras razones, y como lo era México también. En su teoría social-construccionista del espacio, Bob Shields hace énfasis en una geografía imaginaria del espacio, que adquiere independencia con respecto a las prácticas sociales que lo construyen y que configura un repertorio de imáge- nes o una narrativa mítica que influye en la percepción de dicho espacio, llegando a moldear la experiencia del mismo. Los espacios se vuelven así el producto de los discursos sobre esos espacios y lugares: una construcción continua del espacio en el imaginario social en un nivel de presuposiciones míticas y a un nivel de intervenciones sobre el paisaje. En esta producción dis- cursiva sobre el espacio, estos lugares se definen por oposición a otros, dentro de un sistema sim- bólico donde forman parte de binomios como naturaleza-civilización, centro-periferia, orden social –espacio carnavalesco. En ellos se inscribe un orden emotivo y una geografía codificada, que es mitad topología y mitad metáfora (Shields, 31, 83-99). En relación con esta construcción mítica del espacio está el hecho de que sean lugares pri- vilegiados para los ritos de pasaje, necesarios como transición en cambios vitales (cambios de estatus, etapas de la vida o condiciones sociales). Como se sabe estos ritos de pasaje, aunque se proponen como momentos de quiebre o suspensión del orden social, en realidad son favore- cedores del mismo. Según Arnold van Gennep (1960) los ritos de pasaje incluyen tres estadios: la separación, el margen y la reinserción. El viaje hacia este lugar-mito constituiría las dos pri- meras instancias del rito, instancias sin las cuales no sería posible la última. Kevin Hethering- ton añade a la definición del lugar liminal o del “lugar-mito” de Shields la comparación con el laboratorio siguiendo a Bruno Latour: “spaces like the laboratory are socially and technically constructed, contested, heterogenous, partial, contingent and deferred. They act as important nodes, obligatory points of passage for the development of new modes of ordering” (36). Es fácil entender esta idea si se piensa que la experimentación en los lugares liminales es substancial de la misma manera que lo es en los laboratorios. Y que las narrativas que se producen a partir de los experimentos en los laboratorios son reguladas por el lenguaje y el protocolo científicos. 6 - Hispanic Studies Review - Vol. 3, No. 2 (2018): 5-19 Las narrativas que se producen como resultado de la experimentación en los lugares liminales pueden en mayor o menor medida estar consensuadas en el lenguaje literario y artístico, lo in- teresante es notar que el viaje a un lugar liminal es capitalizado como experiencia simbólica y narrada en la práctica literaria. El espacio mítico de la Unión Soviética y las disidencias con el Partido Comunista En el momento de su viaje a la Unión Soviética, Diego Rivera era ya uno de los comunistas más famosos de México, tanto por su obra como por su militancia política en el partido comu- nista mexicano, por eso este viaje es sin duda un viaje hacia un lugar mítico. Durante su estadía en Moscú, de cinco meses, Rivera está deslumbrado por las celebraciones de los Soviets, conoce brevemente a Stalin, de quien bosqueja un retrato que el mismo Stalin autografía y llega a inti- mar con artistas locales tanto del régimen como disidentes. Su amistad con estos últimos parece haber sido una de las causas por las que el ministro de cultura soviético, Anatoly Lunacharscky, cancela el proyecto de dos murales a ser pintados por Diego en el Club del Ejército Rojo y lo invita a regresar a México. Sin embargo, en su autobiografía, My Art, My Life, Diego Rivera no se muestra crítico del régimen ni de Stalin, aunque los peores años del estalinismo estaban más que próximos. Pocos meses después Trotsky se exilia en México y la amistad entre Rivera y Trotsky será una fuente grave de disidencia con el Partido Comunista mexicano, del que Rivera había sido expulsado después del regreso de su viaje y al que será admitido muchos años más tarde, en 1954, cuatro años después de la admisión de Frida y dos meses después de la muerte de la pintora (Hamill 202).
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