Frida Kahlo CC0 Digital Variations by Ken Harley ‘Resurrection!’

Artist

Magda Pach, 1884 - 1950

Sitter

Frida Kahlo, 6 Jul 1907 - 13 Jul 1954

Exhibition Label

Born Mexico City, Mexico

Since the late 1970s Frida Kahlo has emerged as one of the foremost twentieth-century practitioners of the art of portraiture. Mexican artist Diego Rivera was an early supporter of her work, and the couple married in 1929. While Rivera worked on large-scale history murals, Kahlo’s work was both intimate in scale and subject matter. These qualities stemmed partly from her lifelong health challenges after a streetcar accident that occurred when she was eighteen. Through her self-portraits she expressed her physical and emotional pain, as well as her fluid identity as a politically engaged, modern, cosmopolitan woman and heir to Mexico’s indigenous traditions. For her championing of personal experience and identity as valid art subjects, Kahlo is a cultural icon for feminists, gays, and U.S. Latinos, among others.

Magda Pach, wife of writer and artist Walter Pach, was one of the American establishment figures who fervently supported Mexican art in the United States during the 1920s and 1930s.

Nacida en Ciudad de México, México

A fines de la década de 1970, Frida Kahlo comenzó a ser apreciada como una de las mejores retratistas del siglo XX. El artista mexicano Diego Rivera estuvo entre los primeros que apoyaron su trabajo, y ambos contrajeron matrimonio en 1929. Rivera trabajaba murales históricos a gran escala, mientras que la obra de Kahlo es intimista, tanto en escala como en temas. Esa introspección es en cierto modo reflejo de su larga lucha con problemas de salud luego de sufrir un accidente de tranvía a los dieciocho años. En sus autorretratos, además de su dolor físico y emocional, Kahlo manifiesta las complejidades de ser una mujer comprometida políticamente, moderna, cosmopolita y a la vez heredera de las tradiciones indígenas mexicanas. Por su énfasis en las vivencias personales y la identidad como temas válidos del arte, Kahlo se ha convertido en un icono cultural para los sectores feministas, gays y latinos de Estados Unidos, entre otros.

Magda Pach, esposa del escritor y pintor Walter Pach, fue una de las figuras del establishment norteamericano que dieron su ferviente apoyo al arte mexicano en Estados Unidos durante las décadas de 1920 y 1930.

Provenance

Magda Pach, New York; Walter Pach, New York (by descent), 1950; Nikifora Iliopoulos, Athens; Francis M. Naumann Fine Art, New York.

Credit Line

National Portrait Gallery, Smithsonian Institution

1933

Object number

NPG.2015.136

Restrictions & Rights

CC0

Type

Painting

Medium

Oil on canvas

Dimensions

Frame: 67.2 × 57 × 4.1cm (26 7/16 × 22 7/16 × 1 5/8")

Stretcher: 51.1 × 41cm (20 1/8 × 16 1/8")

Place

United States\New York state

See more items in

National Portrait Gallery Collection

Exhibition

20th Century Americans: 1930-1960

On View

NPG, South Gallery 321

National Portrait Gallery

Topic

Costume\Jewelry\Necklace

Costume\Jewelry\Earring

Interior

Frida Kahlo: Visual Arts\Artist

Frida Kahlo: Female

Portrait

Record ID

npg_NPG.2015.136

Metadata Usage (text)

CC0