Beauty can rise from ashes. Such was the case for Frida Kahlo and Diego Rivera when they found themselves in a foreign city such as Detroit during the toughest time in the country, the Great Depression. For about a year, between 1932 and 1933, Diego and Frida resided in the Motor City. The artistic obligation for Diego turned into a metamorphosis for his dear Frida and a pivotal point for her, both as a woman and as an artist.
By then Diego was an accomplished painter and muralist. Aside from having completed several works in Mexico, he had worked on murals at both New York’s Museum of Modern Art and in San Francisco. He had proven to be more than qualified by the time Detroit’s Art Commission approached him to create a set of murals inside the Detroit Institute of Arts. This one-of-a-kind permanent installation is now located in what is known as the “Rivera Court” of the DIA. But the grand opening was not without controversy, local papers calling it “un-American” and clergy calling it blasphemy. It was well-known Diego and Frida had ties with communism, and that some of the details of the work contained Marxist messages.
Ironically, in 2013, when the City of Detroit faced financial hardship, it ordered an inventory of the DIAs art, which included van Gogh’s, Matisse’s and Rivera’s art to be auctioned to pay off debt. It didn’t happen thanks to concerned citizens who stepped up with their message, “Keep your hands off our culture.” This atmosphere is not unlike what Frida and Diego would have experienced during their time in the city when auto workers took to the picket lines in the early 30s.
It is no secret that Diego’s 27 panels that comprise the mural represent the different classes in society, which also connect people to the Earth and science in such a way that made society take note. He worked quickly, with help of assistants. The art of creating frescoes was backbreaking and time-consuming. The formula had to be mixed to an exact consistency to match colors and remain resilient after many years.
The pressure was more of a personal nature, though. During their stay in Detroit, Frida spiraled into depression, which culminated with a miscarriage. As a result, Detroit forever emblazoned that memory not only into her mind, but also into her heart and body. It was then she started to paint with abandon. Her most notable works from that period depict the pain and agony she felt with losing her child—a woman on a bed, bleeding, numerous umbilical chords flying away from her with her dead child, her pelvis, her life. And in the background the smokestacks and factories of Detroit. By this time, she had already suffered more than any woman should, having suffered a tragic accident as a young girl, where her pelvis was impaled by a pole.
After the miscarriage, Diego worked furiously on the murals. In the collection made available at the DIA this year, visitors could see sketches of the final works and the painstaking details that went into creating such a magnanimous work. There is even some silent video of Rivera working on a scaffold and Frida sitting at his side. Although the entirety of the project depicts the city of Detroit’s greatest asset at the time, Ford Motor Company, and the entrails of the factories with its workers such as welders and laborers of all trades, it also depicted what Diego and Frida saw around them as they traversed in the streets of the city—the people of Detroit. A small painting by Frida, her first in Detroit, is a store window decorated for a patriotic holiday. One of Diego’s panels, which changed dramatically is a central plant bulb, in which he painted a baby as if in a womb. The original concept was geared more toward an agricultural scene, but after their deep, personal experience, this changed.
Regardless of the commission or the subject-matter, Diego and Frida tended to incorporate the indigenous culture that they felt all Mexicans were somewhat connected to, which is evident throughout the frescoes. Frida displayed this daily most of her life with her dress and hair adornments, always staying true to her roots, this while dealing with her past, her pain, and her uncertain future.
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