A Frida Kahlo self-portrait was not included in the NPG exhibit but I was able to locate the one below in the collection of the National Museum of Women in the Arts (NMWA).
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| Frida Kahlo Self-Portrait Dedicated to Leon Trotsky, 1937 Oil on Masonite |
The Kahlo self-portrait commemorates the brief affair that she had with Leo Trotsky shortly after his arrival in Mexico in 1937 as well as stipulating her political leanings. The letter in her hand is a dedication to Trotsky which states "with all my love." Kahlo is wearing the distinctive clothing of the Tehuantepec women of southwest Mexico while the staging of the photo draws upon a Mexican vernacular style called retablos.
The Eye to I self-portrait with the most direct link to Kahlo is that of her husband Diego Rivera. The two were first married in 1929. "Theirs was a volatile relationship that underwent marital infidelities, the pressure of Rivera's career, a divorce and remarriage, and Kahlo's deteriorating health" (NMNA).
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| Diego Rivera 1930 Lithograph |
Diego is remembered for his public art and murals in Mexico and the US, probably the most famous of which is the 27-panel fresco Detroit Industry prepared for the Detroit Institute of Arts. According to the notes accompanying the exhibit, "The lively crosshatching strokes used to model the contours of his face relate directly to the technique he employed in his monumental murals."
Nickolas Muray emigrated to the US from his native Hungary in 1913 and by 1920, he was a much-sought-after photographer to the stars. He met Frida Kahlo in 1931 and they became lovers, a relationship which lasted for a decade.
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| Nickolas Muray c. 1935 Gelatin silver print |
During the Depression years the celebrity business dried up so Muray switched to commercial and advertising work, becoming a color-photography expert in the process. He is shown above with his one-shot color-separation camera.
Louise Nevelson was a sculptor and artist who briefly apprenticed with Diego Rivera, Frida Kahlo's husband. According to the notes, "... wiry scratches, squiggles, bold black contours, and a red overdrawing compete for attention. The robust features convey her driven personality along with the muscular expression evident in her later sculpture. The double red contours of the face hint at both profile and full-face poses, suggestive of a rotating head, Pablo Picasso's cubism, and multiple-exposure photography.
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| Louise Nevelson c. 1938 Ink and watercolor on paper |
Pele deLappe met Diego Rivera and, as a result, became a sketching companion of Frida. She studied in New York in the early 1930s but moved back to San Francisco in 1934. Her works reflected the influences of Rivera and another of his friends David Alfara Siqueiros. "Her lithographs of the 1930s had a muralist's sensibility, with simplified compositions, broad planes, low viewpoints, and heroic figural forms."
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| Pele deLappe 1938 Graphite on paper |
The above drawing conveys her beauty and self-assurance framed in the affect of a mural's monumentality.
©Everythingelse238
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