Frida Kahlo Through the Lens of Eyes of Nickolas Muray

"Frida With Picture Frame (on Self Portrait Remembrance of an Open Wound)," Coyoacán, 1938.

Happy 109th birthday to one of the most profound artist women of this century-- Frida Kahlo. An inspiration for as long as I can remember, she holds a resonate place in my heart. Despite some believing she has become kitschy, too famous beyond paintings and lithographs, I stay true to my ardent adoration.
Everyone knows her name. Everyone knows her pained history, her vivid personal work, her cultural fashion, her unique beauty.
Today is the best day to revisit Toronto's special exhibit on beautiful portraits of Frida by one of her lovers-- Nickolas Muray.

Last summer, Textile Museum of Canada spilled details of an illustrious affair between artists-- photographer Nickolas Muray and painter/diarist Frida Kahlo.

On the walls, Muray's prints were adhered to walls alongside fragments of their clandestine letters to one another. The romance was a short lived one, but the ghosts flew out of sacred catacombs, resting in the space, confessing raw, fervent language.

Brightly lit digital presentation feature inventive design and vivacious provocation that comes in regards to having remarkable Frida Kahlo as focal protagonist. Part of Frida's charm is that she is not demanding or overpowering the space she reigns. Instead her quiet force of nature-- stark, vulnerable yet mysterious-- bursts through two-dimensional orientations, taking the viewer on wondrous journey to arresting genius. Whether embodying love for Diego Rivera, her sister Cristina, or pleasure meant for the photographer's discernible gaze alone, fierce tenderness and wild spirit dally between pieces, showcasing facets of Frida's personality-- naughty mischief, intelligent intrigue, and scandalous come-hitherance. Enchanted spectator has no choice to fall under the spell of such a softened predator.
Muray's staged quite sophisticated play in his concise attention to detail, making glittery-eyed sitter a star of high contrasting compositions. His color play is like fresh, ripened fruit, lusciously tantalizing and sweetly forbidden. Spectator has no choice but to succumb to temptation-- to the earthly capture of a phenomenal woman, a talent still utterly missed by the world.

"Frida With Hand at Her Throat," Mexico City, 1940.

"Frida With Granizo," Coyoacán, 1940.

"Frida With Blue Satin Blouse (final portrait)," New York in Nickolas Muray's Studio, 1939.

"Frida," Mexico City, 1940.

"Cristina and Frida," New York, 1946.

"Self-Portrait With Frida Kahlo in Her Studio and on Her Easel Her Self-Portrait Me and My Parrots," Coyoacán, 1945.

"Frida," Coyoacán, 1938.

From the "Frida in Her Wheelchair" series, Coyoacán, 1945.

Posing with "Frida on a White Bench (Carbro),"  New York, Nickolas Muray's Studio, 1939.