Viva Frida!
An Exhibition and Community Celebration
September 16 – October 20, 2011
Main Library Urban Room
The Viva Frida! exhibition and community celebration, taking place September 16 to October 20, honors the life of world-renowned Mexican artist Frida Kahlo and Mexico’s rich artistic traditions, history, and culture. It is designed to stimulate cultural appreciation and creativity in viewers of all ages, ethnicities, and backgrounds.
Central Exhibition at the Main Library: At the center of the celebration is an exhibition of 46 images and high quality digital reproductions of Kahlo’s art and life. The reproductions of her work are accompanied by text narrated by her friends, such as photographer Nickolas Muray. The 46 images are displayed on 33 panels, each measuring 54.6” x 38.4”, mounted on freestanding structures in the Main Library Urban Room. An additional three works of the collection will be housed at Art Access/VSA Utah, 230 South 500 West #125.
The exhibit is designed to appeal to a general audience of all educational levels including children and English learners (materials are in English and Spanish). Thanks to a grant from the Utah Humanities Council, Viva Frida! also includes educational materials created with the assistance of University of Utah and Brigham Young University professors. These materials cover Mexico’s history, indigenous peoples, and art traditions, as well as Kahlo’s challenges as a female artist and the healing role that art played in her life.
Viva Frida! is an exhibit licensed by the Government of Mexico that includes works from major collections of art in Mexico including Collection FEMSA, Monterrey; Museo de Arte Moderno-INBA; Museo Dolores Olmedo Patiño, Xochimilco; Museo Frida Kahlo, Coyoacán; Throckmorton Fine Arts Inc.; and the Nickolas Muray Photo Archive.
Nickolas Muray: A Utah Connection to Frida Kahlo: Thanks to the generosity of Nickolas Muray’s daughter, Utah resident Mimi Muray Levitt, Viva Frida! also includes a companion exhibit of the photographs of Nickolas Muray, one of Kahlo’s closest friends. A Hungarian photographer living in New York, Muray took some of the most iconic photographs of Kahlo, including the famous photograph of her draped in a red shawl. Muray's photographs depict Kahlo posing candidly in her studio as well as alone or with Diego Rivera. This exhibition, curated by University of Utah Photography Professor Joe Marotta, will be on display in the Browsing Library on Level 1 of the Main Library. Eight additional photographs from this collection will be on exhibit at Mestizo Coffeehouse, 631 West North Temple. The Muray exhibition is made possible through the generous sponsorship of the Friends of The City Library.
Additional Events: Salt Lake City will celebrate the exhibition and Kahlo’s legacy and Mexican culture through lectures, film screenings, community conversations, art events, and much more at several libraries and other venues. Full Viva Frida! event information is available at vivafridautah.org.
Sponsors: Viva Frida! is presented by Artes de México en Utah, a Utah non-profit. Viva Frida! is supported by generous sponsorships from the Utah Humanities Council, Utah Arts Council, Friends of The City Library, and Wells Fargo Bank.
Image Credits:
· Frida Kahlo (1907-54), The Two Fridas, 1939, oil on canvas, courtesy of Museum of Modern Art, INBA, Mexico
· Frida Kahlo (1907-54), Self Portrait, 1940, oil on masonite, courtesy of Harry Ranson Humanities Research Collection, University of Texas Austin
· Photo by Nickolas Muray, © Nickolas Muray Photo Archives
For a full schedule of events taking place around Salt Lake City, please visit vivafridautah.org.
Events at The City Library
Ribbon Cutting Ceremony: Viva Frida! opens
Friday, September 16, 5:00 p.m.
Memorias de un Mexicano, film screening
Friday, September 16, 7:00 p.m.
Main Library Auditorium
This documentary of the 1910-20 Mexican Revolution contains rare footage of actual battles and explores women’s roles in the struggle. Presented in partnership with Centro Civico Mexicano. (1950. 109 minutes. Directors Carmen Toscano and Salvador Toscano. Starring Manuel Bernal. In Spanish. Not rated.)
Memorias de un Mexicano, film screening
Saturday, September 17, 10:00 a.m.
Main Library Auditorium
Encore presentation from September 16. Presented in partnership with Centro Civico Mexicano.
Utah-Mexico Art Connection: An intimate discussion with two Utahns
Tuesday, September 20, 7:00 p.m.
Special Collections, Main Library, Level 4
This special evening includes a showing of Nickolas Muray’s photographs of Kahlo, a talk by University of Utah Photography Professor Joe Marotta, and a discussion with Mimi Muray Levitt, daughter of Nickolas Muray, and Tina Misrachi Martin, whose father was Diego Rivera’s art dealer from 1935 to 1945. Levitt’s father was one of Kahlo’s closest friends, and Martin has vivid memories of Kahlo and Rivera. Find out what Kahlo was really like and how she captured the hearts of so many.
Public reception for the Viva Frida! exhibit on the Library Plaza
Thursday, September 22, 6:30 p.m.
The Power of Art to Unite a Diverse Nation: How Art Brought Mexico Together in the Times of Frida Kahlo
Thursday, September 22, 7:00 p.m.
Main Library Auditorium
This event will be presented in Spanish with English interpretation. Dr. Alfonso Alfaro, PhD (Anthropology, University of Paris) will discuss how art helped reunite Mexico following the tumultuous Mexican Revolution that took place during Kahlo’s childhood. The major players in the artistic world included Mexicans and foreigners who were sometimes at odds with each other ideologically. Some of the artists worked on cultural projects sponsored or directed by the state, while others worked independently at the margins; some worked in painting and sculpture, others in architecture, film, music, or dance. In this process, outside cultural influences (mainly U.S. and European) played an important role. The effervescent and diverse artistic movements of these years developed without coordination and blossomed in an atmosphere of creativity encouraged by the government in spite of its rigid ideology. The works of these artists began to reconstruct the ties that had held together a country of so many cultures over the past centuries. These artworks permitted Mexicans to begin to connect again with themselves and with the world. Post-Revolutionary Mexican art was, for decades, a decisive factor in cultural dynamics and social stability. Today it stands as an example of host art can inspire a society in search of new ways of achieving harmony.
Dr. Alfonso Alfaro is an invited speaker and curator in Mexico and France. His writings on Mexican art and culture appear regularly in Mexico’s premiere art magazine, Artes de México, and other publications.
Free Health Fair/Feria de Salud
Saturday, September 24, 9:00 a.m. – 3:00 p.m.
Main Library, Lower Urban Room
Kahlo began to paint to combat the pain of the accident that left her mentally and physically scarred for life. In honor of her struggles for health, Utah Partners for Health is donating a community health fair, which will offer blood sugar, cholesterol, and blood pressure testing. Classes in Interactive Diabetes Lifestyle, Healthy Cooking will be offered throughout the day. At 1:00 p.m., a Zumba (salsa dance exercise) class will be held on Library Square in partnership with the Imagine Peace Festival.
Health information and services will be provided by partnering organizations including Communidades Unidas, Intermountain Heathcare, Utah Diabetes and Endocrinology Center, Alliance Community Services, South Valley Sanctuary, Utah AIDS Foundation, and Planned Parenthood. Sponsored by Utah Partners for Health.
Tizoc, film screening
Monday, September 26, 5:00 p.m.
Main Library Auditorium
Mexico’s most famous movie stars shine in this story of an impossible love between an Indian peasant and the Mestiza daughter of a wealthy landowner. (1957. 109 minutes. Director Ishmael Rodríguez. Starring Pedro Infante and Maria Felix. In Spanish with English subtitles. Not rated.)
Frida Kahlo the Tehuana: Indigenous Arts and Revolution
Monday, September 26, 7:00 p.m.
Main Library Auditorium
At the time of the Spanish conquest, what is now Mexico was home to hundreds of groups of indigenous peoples with rich histories, cultural traditions and folk arts. Four hundred years later, at the time of the Mexican Revolution, the majority of Mexicans had both Indian and Spanish blood, though dozens of different ethnic groups continued to follow their unique lifeways. The Revolution, in order to establish a national identity and a classless society, sought to place greater value on indigenous art than European art. In The Two Fridas, one Frida appears dressed in European finery, perhaps representing the European ancestors of her father and Mexico’s Spanish conquerors, and the other, in indigenous clothing, reflecting her Mexican mother’s ancestry and the indigenous ancestry of most Mexicans. In other pieces, such as Self-Portrait with Medallion and Self-Portrait with Monkey, Kahlo painted herself dressed in Indian clothing and surrounded by her cherished collections of folk art, thus identifying herself with the Revolution. What were the indigenous beliefs reflected in Kahlo’s art? Was the Revolution successful in integrating the indigenous peoples into the fabric of the country? What is the role of indigenous peoples in Mexico today? This talk may change the way you look at Kahlo’s art.
Speakers:
Allen Christenson, PhD (Pre-Columbian Art History), Assistant Professor, Humanities, Classics and Comparative Literature, Brigham Young University
Lourdes Alberto, PhD, Assistant Professor, English/Ethnic Studies, University of Utah
Frida: Naturaleza Viva, film screening
Thursday, September 29, 5:00 p.m.
Main Library Auditorium
Considered by many the best film on Frida Kahlo, this film tells of Kahlo’s life through music, art and movement. Filmed amidst original Kahlo paintings in the Blue House (before it was a museum). (1986. 108 minutes. Director Paul Leduc. Starring Ofelia Medina, Juan José Gurrola. In Spanish with English subtitles. Not rated. Film includes female nudity and sexuality.)
How Painting Saved Frida’s Life: The Role of Art in Healing
Thursday, September 29, 7:00 p.m.
Main Library Auditorium
Kahlo said, “I never painted my dreams. I painted my own reality.” As shown in The Broken Column (1944), Coconuts, Without Hope, The Accident, Henry Ford Hospital, The Wounded Deer, and Self-Portrait with Thorn Necklace, Kahlo’s reality was one of great physical and emotional suffering. Kahlo had polio as a child, which resulted in a shortened leg and a limp. A devastating streetcar accident at age 18 shattered her pelvis and damaged her organs. She suffered continual spinal problems, multiple miscarriages, and had a foot amputation later in life. She also suffered emotionally because of her famously unfaithful husband. To counteract the pain, Kahlo turned to art as medicine. She said it saved her life. It is impossible not to be moved by Kahlo’s powerful art and its universal theme of human suffering. But Kahlo’s art also contains powerful messages of hope, strength, and resilience. Many artists have found Kahlo’s art and life an inspiration in their own healing.
Speakers:
Pollie Price, PhD, OTR/L, Associate Professor, College of Health Division of Occupational Therapy, University of Utah
Shannon Simonelli, PhD, ATR, Director Expressive Therapies Department, University NeuroPsychiatric Institute (UNI)
Sheryl Gillilan, MSS, MLSP, is Assistant Director, Art Access/VSA Utah
Note: Graphic images, including nudity, of Kahlo’s suffering will be on display for this event.
Finding Your Frida with Susan Kirby
Saturday, October 1, 1:00 – 3:30 p.m.
Sprague Branch
Kahlo painted herself, often surrounded by objects and in vivid clothing, jewelry, and hairstyles, to express her cultural, personal, and social identity as well as her emotions. In this workshop, artist Susan Kirby will lead students in creating self-portraits reflecting their identities using a variety of materials. Limit 20 participants; register by email, artesmexicoutah@gmail.com. Free health screenings will be available at this event. This program is generously sponsored by the Friends of The City Library and Wells Fargo Bank.
An Art of her Own: 20th Century Mexican Female Artists
Thursday, October 6, 7:00 p.m.
Main Library Auditorium
In Double Portrait: Diego and I (1944), Kahlo depicts a head, half of which is hers and the other half Rivera’s. Women artists played important roles in the art world in Mexico during the 20th century, but almost always as one half of a couple including a more famous male artist. The art world in Mexico was dominated by men painting massive murals on the sides of public buildings and projecting their personalities in equally loud ways. Kahlo’s work, in contrast, remained personal and intimate, reflecting not the ambitious tenets of the Mexican Revolution but her own inner life. She felt a strong connection to women. But women were also rivals for her husband’s attention. In creating her own kind of art she faced challenges, including having herself and her work seen as trivial. Women artists throughout history have struggled for a place in the art world. Have things changed for women artists since Kahlo’s time? What struggles do they face and what can they learn from her?
Speakers:
Angela Cecilia Espinosa, PhD, Asst. Professor, Languages & Literature, University of Utah
Susie Porter, Associate Professor (History and Gender Studies), and Director Gender Studies, University of Utah
Creating a Family History Codex with Veronica Perez
Saturday, October 8, 3:00 p.m.
Day-Riverside Branch
Some of the oldest and most beautiful records of Latin America’s rich cultures are the paper accordion style codices created by its indigenous people prior to the Spanish conquest. In this workshop, artist Veronica Perez will teach families to create a codex to document their story of migration in a format that is historically and culturally relevant. Limit 30 participants; register by email, artesmexicoutah@gmail.com. Free health screenings will be available at this event. This program is generously sponsored by the Friends of The City Library and Wells Fargo Bank.
Magnificent Masks with Jorge Rojas
Saturday, October 15, 1:00 – 3:00 p.m.
Chapman Branch
Are you a jaguar or a saint? Maybe both? Masks allow imagination and creativity. Not only are they fun and liberating, they also are a powerful connection to Mexico’s history, mixing indigenous beliefs, old world religious beliefs, and contemporary beliefs. Artist Jorge Rojas will teach students to create paper mache masks that reflect their own ideas of who they are or who they might be. Limit 30 participants; register by email, artesmexicoutah@gmail.com. Free health screenings will be available at this event. This program is generously sponsored by the Friends of The City Library and Wells Fargo Bank.
Frida, film screening
Sunday, October 16, 3:00 p.m.
Main Library Auditorium
This feature film, based on Hayden Herrera’s definitive biography, Frida: A Biography of Frida Kahlo, captures the magic of post-Revolutionary Mexican art world Mexico when art was helping define a country and a national identity. Decades in the making, this biopic is driven by Salma Hayek’s passion for Kahlo and for Mexico. (2002. 121 minutes. Julie Taymor, Director. Starring Salma Hayak. Rated R for sexuality/nudity and language. In English with Spanish subtitles.)
De ida y de vuelta, film screening
Tuesday, October 18, 5:30 p.m.
Main Library Auditorium
A tragic look at the life of a fieldworker returning to Mexico after several years in the U.S. The Mexico he returns to has changed and he finds himself unwelcome and facing new challenges. (2004. 94 minutes. Director Salvador Aguirre. Starring Gerardo Tarcena. In Spanish with English subtitles. Not rated.)
Gringolandia: Frida’s Love-Hate Relationship with the U.S.
Tuesday, October 18, 7:00 p.m.
Main Library Auditorium
Kahlo’s conflicting feelings about the U.S. are reflected in Self-Portrait on the Border between Mexico and the United States (1932), and My Dress Hangs There (1933). These paintings demonstrate the complexity of the relationship between the U.S. and Mexico. Utahns are accustomed to thinking of about the summer of 1847 when the Mormon pioneers arrived in the Salt Lake Valley. But few can imagine what it was like in Mexico City on September 16, 1847, the day of Mexico’s celebration of its independence from Spain, when U.S. troops hoisted the Star Spangled Banner onto Mexico City’s National Palace. Many of us are unaware that the U.S. occupied Mexico for nine months, and that among Mexico’s greatest heroes are nine young military cadets who leaped to their death from Chapultepec Castle rather than suffer the indignity of being captured by U.S. troops. Mexico’s history of the past two hundred years, and especially the past 100 years since the beginning of its Revolution, continues to affect interactions between the U.S. and Mexico at all levels, from international relations to schoolyard interactions to current debates regarding immigration.
Speakers:
Claudio Holzner, PhD, Associate Professor, Political Science Department, University of Utah
Kenneth P. Jameson, PhD, Professor of Economics, Dept. of Economics, University of Utah
Ruby Chacón, BFA, Artist, co-founder Mestizo Coffeehouse and Gallery
Last day to view the Viva Frida! exhibition
October 20
Location: Main Library, Urban Room
Contact Information: (801) 524-8200
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