Few love affairs were as passionate, or as artistically fruitful, as the the one between Frida Kahlo and Diego Rivera.
While their hearts and lives were intensely intertwined, their artworks followed very different trajectories. As a result, their oeuvres are not often exhibited together. An upcoming show entitled "Art in Fusion" will finally display the artists in a single exhibition, displaying the power of both figures as individuals as well as the ferocity of their love.
By Frida Kahlo
Kahlo's portraits are part autobiography, part mythology -- depicting agonizing emotion through fantastical scenarios (and that iconic unibrow). Rivera's paintings veer toward politics over emotion, depicting the everyday lives of rural workers. While Kahlo's style veers toward the flattened surrealism of Mexican folklore, Rivera engages in an artistic conversation with the burgeoning European movements of the time, toying with trends like Cubism and abstraction. Yet while their styles diverge, both 20th century artists were deeply rooted in the history and culture of Mexico, and have forever marked the country's artistic tradition.
By Diego Rivera
The Musée de l'Orangerie illuminated another reason for combining the two iconic artists, who separated after 25 years of marriage. Combining their artworks in an exhibition in some way operates "as if to confirm the impossibility of their divorce that was in fact finalized but reconsidered after just one year apart." The images, ripe with color, history, emotion and love, capture the whirlwind passion that both artists brought to both their work and their relationship.
See some of our favorite works from the show below:
by Frida Kahlo
By Frida Kahlo
By Diego Rivera
By Frida Kahlo
by Frida Kahlo
By Diego Rivera
by Frida Kahlo
By Frida Kahlo
By Diego Rivera
By Frida Kahlo
"Art in Fusion" will run until January 13 at The Musée de l'Orangerie in France. Read about another exhibition of Frida & Diego's work, entitled "Frida & Diego: Passion, Politics, and Painting" here.
Correction: An earlier edition of this article falsely attributed the quote "The art of Frida Kahlo is a ribbon around a bomb" to Diego Rivera. It is in fact by Andre Breton. We regret the error.