Exhibition of Frida Kahlo's Work Announced by Martin Gropius Bau

Written by Boris Ungermann Sunday, 03 January 2010 20:45

BERLIN.- The year 2007 was the hundredth anniversary of the birth of the artist Frida Kahlo. She attained cult status through an art that combined the colourful, cheerful culture of Mexico with the traumatic experiences of her own life. Although this made her the most famous female artist of the first half of the 20th century, in Germany her work was very seldom to be seen in the original. The over 120 paintings and drawings on display in the Martin-Gropius-Bau will be the most extensive exhibition of Frida Kahlo’s oeuvre to date.

It will contain works never before seen and assumed to be lost. A particular highlight will be the last work of Frida Kahlo, here to be seen for the first time. There will also be approximately 70 drawings, some of them hitherto unpublished, which reveal unknown aspects of the artist’s personality. These will include landscapes that metamorphose into sexual fantasies and subtly humorous plays on words and images. The codes needed to decipher these conceits will be clearly explained.

Frida Kahlo’s artistic development from the New Objectivity (Neue Sachlichkeit), through Mexican Estridentism to Surrealism and her very own blend of Realism will be comprehensively presented. Her art will be supplemented by a collection of photographs belonging to her family and friends which offer unusual insights into her time. Responsibility for this part of the exhibition will rest with Frida Kahlo’s great niece, the photographer Cristina Kahlo.

The loans come from Mexican private collections, North American museums and prominent collections in the USA.

The building was erected between 1877 and 1881 by the architects Martin Gropius (a great uncle of Walter Gropius) and Heino Schmieden in an Italian Renaissance style. The ground plan is quadratic (length of each side c. 70 m; building height c. 26 m). The exhibition rooms surround an imposing atrium decorated with mosaics and the coats of arms of the German states.

Originally designed as a museum of applied arts, after World War I the building housed Berlin’sMuseum for Prehistory and Early Historyand theEast Asian Art Collection. It was severely damaged in 1945 during the last weeks of World War II, and reopened in 1981 after post war reconstruction beginning in 1978. Further renovation took place in 1998/1999 resulting in what is often described as one of Germany’s most beautiful historic exhibition buildings.

Visit the Martin-Gropius-Bau at : www.berlinerfestspiele.de/en/

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