Photographs reflect artists' own paintings
Aurora University will host "Frida Kahlo: Through the Lens of Nickolas Muray," an exhibit of 46 color portrait photographs of the influential Mexican painter from Muray's archives, through March 28 in the Schingoethe Center for Native American Cultures in Dunham Hall, 1400 Marseillaise Place in Aurora.
The public is invited. Admission is free.
Center hours are 8 a.m. to 9 p.m. Monday to Thursday, 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. Friday, and 1 to 4 p.m. Sunday.
The exhibit is part of AU's 2009-2010 Celebrating Arts and Ideas series which includes art exhibits, films, theater presentations, music performances and lectures to April 30. The exhibit is part of a national tour over a 21/2-year period containing photographic prints reproduced from the original negatives.
Muray (1892-1965) came to America in 1913 from Hungary. During his 45-year career as a New York photographer, he developed a growing reputation that began during the 1920s when he photographed everybody who was anybody.
At the time of his death, most Americans had seen his portraits of celebrities, presidents, or advertisements. Whether they knew the identity of the photographer who had created these images, these had infiltrated America's psyche as icons with which it readily identified.
Between 1920 and 1940, Muray made more than 10,000 portraits. He began photographing famous Mexican painter Frida Kahlo, in color in the winter of 1938-1939, while Kahlo resided in New York, attending her exhibition at the Julien Levy Gallery; and he continued to do so until 1948. Muray photographed Kahlo more often than any other single person.
Kahlo is known for her bold and vibrantly colored paintings. Her life was tumultuous, punctuated by the Mexican Revolution, polio, a debilitating accident that left her unable to bear children and in severe pain for the rest of her life, and two marriages to the same man, Diego Rivera.
Because Kahlo was often alone and bedridden after 35 surgeries, she painted many self portraits. As a result, the photographs by Muray in this exhibit look strikingly similar to her paintings.
Muray makes audacious use of color in his portrayals, reflecting the indigenous cultures of Mexico which had such a strong influence on Frida's personal style in clothing and painting.
Muray and Kahlo were at the height of an on-again, off-again 10-year love affair when he began photographing her using the Carbro technique. Their affair had started in 1931, after Muray was divorced from his second wife and shortly after Kahlo's marriage to Mexican muralist painter Diego Rivera.
Carbro prints of Muray's portraits of Kahlo are in the permanent collection of the Frida Kahlo Museum, The George Eastman House, The National Portrait Gallery/Smithsonian, and The Metropolitan Museum of Art. For details, call (630) 844-5402 or visit aurora.edu/museum.