It has not been easy getting into many places here in Mexico City. To make a list would bore you but we have persevered and so we finally got tickets to Frida Kahlo's Casa Azur. This is a house that she grew up in and lived in for 30 years with Diego. Her family history is interesting as her father was from Germany Hungary at the time and her mother was Zapoteca, a people from east of Oaxaca so she was of mixed blood and had a certain duality. Here is a picture of her mother and Frida with her sisters.
These photos are not in order because of the problem downloading with little internet availability but this is inside her house in the bedroom. This is a pre-hispanic ceramic on the dresser that holds her ashes.
The courtyard of the Casa Azul is filled with plants and Diego and Frida had many animals, hairless mexican dogs and spider monkeys. She and Diego loved animals and frequently included them in paintings. Here below you see her daytime bed that was directly opposite a large door to the outside courtyard. She had a mirror installed above her to be able to paint in bed. I had a very unexpected emotional reaction to this place. She was such a strong character. To have struggled all her life with pain and 22 operations. After polio as a child and then the horrible accident at 22 yrs. old. She dressed to cover her legs and concentrate on her best assets wearing corsets and adorning her torso and hair. She was really the first female artist to expose her very personal struggles.
These are some of her dresses that were discovered just 10 years ago in boxes in the bathroom as well as her corsets. She was a trend setter and wore very traditional Zapoteca dresses. Vogue did a cover of her on their magasine after she went to France and stunned the french with her allure.
Some of the ceramics in the house with the paintings that illustrate them. I love these little dogs in mexican pre-hispanic art. It is really an animal you see everywhere here.
Diego and Frida. She was considered a bird and he was such a big man she would call him a toad.But they were both passionately active in the culture of prehispanic Mexico.
The kitchen with that great yellow that many artists use. All the utensils and pots are of the time of the Riveras.
Her studio with paints and palette. She was very interested in science and at a young age her father offered her a microscope. Her paintings are evidence of her interest in biology.
The problem we have with the Casa Azul is we reserved with a company called Viatour and they should not be trusted. They cancelled the visit after we paid and didn't tell us, so one of the first days in Mexico City we were refused at the door. But after visiting Trotsky's house we tried to reserve with the Casa Azul website and were able to get tickets 4 days later. That is why we came back to Mexico City after Puebla. And we were happy to have done so because we were able to see also this fine museum below, which houses Diegos collection of pre hispanic art. It was designed by him and is called in architectural terms "Brutalism". It does look very brut, using volcanic rock and strong angles.
Anahuacalli museum is a sturdy building with dark and cavelike interiors that complement the displays of ceramics and artifacts. Very cool on the inside. It has alabaster windows very common as it is plentiful here.
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