Earlier this week, 1xRUN Writer & Photographer Mike Popso had a chance to walk through the Detroit Institute of Arts current exhibition featuring works from Diego Rivera and Frida Kahlo. The exhibition featuring collected works from the two artists runs through July 12th and more information can be found at the DIA website. Read on for tons of photos and more…
“Rivera painted many murals in his lifetime, but he said that Detroit Industry was his finest work.” – Detroit Institute Of Arts
When you think of Detroit your brain probably doesn’t immediately jump to Diego Rivera & Frida Kahlo. But, the truth of the matter is they both lived in Detroit for a year in the 1930’s and left an impression that is still present today. Diego Rivera was hired by Edsel B. Ford to paint a small wall at The Detroit Institute of Arts. According to the D.I.A., “Rivera was originally commissioned to paint the two main walls in the museum court for a fee of $10,000, well below his going rate of $100 per square yard. Once Edsel Ford saw Rivera’s preliminary drawings for the two walls, he was so enthusiastic that he increased Rivera’s commission to $20,889. A few days later Rivera presented a plan to paint all four walls, with no increase in his fee, which resulted in Rivera being paid only $27.52 per square yard.
The Ford’s were an obvious powerhouse in the American Industrial Revolution spearheading the largest transformation of transportation in the world. What Ford was to the auto industry, Rivera was to the art world. Diego Rivera was 6 foot 1 inches and over 300 pounds, a mammoth. A man towering over politics, religion and equality, all concepts he brought into his paintings. Hailing from Mexico the mural capital of the world, Diego brought an arsenal of ideas to Detroit. The biggest weapon Rivera had that one no one ever saw coming was his 98 pound wife Frida.
Frida Kahlo aka Magdalena Carmen Frieda Kahlo y Calderón was more outspoken than probably any woman living in America at the time. A communist, activist and natural beauty, “Frida” which she nicknamed herself, was the dove by Diego’s side. An accomplished painter in her own right, she was inspired by her husband’s work for years before they met. Frida was the voice of reason in a time where the Great Depression was at it’s peak in America. With thousands of people out of work and going hungry, Frida and Diego witnessed first hand in Mexico via Detroit that many thousands of miles away, the conditions of the world was getting worse by the day.
With the workforce of America being treated poorly to say the least, protests and unemployment lines formed almost side by side. The two artists decided to not sit back and let the powers to be take over. Diego and Kahlo were activists. The strongest movement in the world at the time was art. This a time before the internet and cellphones. A time where artists were respected for their craft because not everyone in those days claimed they were an artist unless they could prove it. Artists like Dali and Picasso were kicking the world in its ass with surrealism and cubism. But very few used the power of painting as a major political statement, nor did they notice the every day working man and woman.
Above is Rivera’s depiction of the African American in the 1930’s. The hands next to the figure shown gripping a fistful of coal, suggesting the years of free labor brought upon by 100’s of years of slavery. The picture may look like a man laying down but once you start looking deeper in the work, the symbolism of Rivera’s painting in the fountain room becomes a stick of dynamite sparking a new wave of artist and observer.
Artists have always been renegades and drifters as well major thinkers. Usually the artist is severely selfish in these ways. Diego and Frida saw the common everyday people as heroes and paid homage to them in the work while staying in Detroit. The Mexican woman holding crops above is just one example. The couple had enough drama around them at the time to film their very own reality T.V. show with everything from infidelity to major drinking and miscarriages. The two stopped at literally nothing to let the world know they were here to stay and their voices would be heard. Something artists today should start conveying in their work. Become a voice instead of a number, don’t let the world take over without one hell of a fight. Below are some images of defiance sprinkled into the work along with most of the figures painted with their heads down.
With tons a free time as Diego was working 20 hour days slaving on the museum’s massive fresco, Kahlo started painting the world closing in around her. She became pregnant and lost her child. Below possibly her most known work is a self portrait of the tragic event. Frida was paralyzed years before in a major bus accident, damaging her reproductive organs drastically. All alone, naked on a bed outside, the painting is as disturbing and as honest as one may have ever been with the medium. Kahlo sketched the fetus of her own deceased baby after request to her doctor. As you can see below, Rivera also included the baby into the fresco. It would end up being a life altering moment for the couple that would destroy their marriage briefly.
The following images are a clear state of mind from both artists. Kahlo was painting portraits of suicidal woman as well as painting a self portrait for her lover.
Rivera paints a beautiful portrait of his daughter from a former marriage.
The auto industry isn’t the only workforce shown on the walls. Medicine and farming, as well as scenes from the war, are shown as an enormous homage to a group of people that make the world easier to live in.
Over all the show a the D.I.A. is getting the high praise around the world it deserves. Two artists painting their own world separately and honestly around them. Neither of them backing down to anyone and both of them standing up for themselves as well as the everyday common person. The exhibit is on display until July 14th at the Detroit Institute of Art located at 5200 Woodward Ave in Detroit, MI. I strongly suggest paying the $14 entry fee to witness a time period where artists didn’t have Instagram or social media to voice who they were and what they stood for.
Words and Photos by Mike Popso
-1xRUN