Amedeo Modigliani in Worldwide Museums: 15. Detroit Institute of Arts

 

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The 15th place I would like to introduce for this week is Detroit Institute of Arts.

Founded in 1885, the Detroit Institute of Arts was originally located on Jefferson Avenue, but moved to its current location on Woodward Avenue in 1927 as its collection rapidly expanded. The Beaux-Arts building, designed by Paul Philippe Cret, was immediately called the “temple of art.” Two wings were added in the 1960s and 1970s, and a major renovation and expansion work began in 1999 and was completed in 2007.

The museum has over 658,000 square feet, including more than 100 galleries, a 1,150-seat auditorium, a 380-seat lecture/recital hall, an art reference library, and a state-of-the-art art conservation lab.

With more than 65,000 works, the Detroit Institute of Arts is among the top six in the United States by its collection size. William Valentiner, director from 1924 to 1945, acquired many important works that framed the present collection. Among his notable acquisitions are Mexican artist Diego Rivera's “Detroit Industry” fresco mural, which Rivera regarded as his most successful work, and Vincent van Gogh’s “Self-Portrait”, the first Van Gogh painting to enter a U. S. Museum collection.

A hallmark of the Detroit Institute of Arts is the diversity of its collection. In addition to outstanding American, European, Modern and Contemporary, and Graphic art, the museum holds important works of African, Asian, Native American, Oceanian, Islamic and Ancient art.

The works of Modigliani currently in the possession of the Detroit Institute of Arts are as follows.

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Interesting Art Stories: 66. The Two Fridas, Frida Kahlo, ACJ Art Academy

 

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Currently, I am introducing the stories about various artists and their paintings with the title “Interesting Art Stories”.

The 66th story is “The Two Fridas” by Frida Kahlo.

"The Two Fridas" is an oil painting by Mexican artist Frida Kahlo, considered Kahlo's first large-scale work and one of her most notable paintings. The painting is a double self-portrait of two versions of Kahlo sitting together, one wearing a white European-style Victorian dress while the other wearing a traditional Tehuana dress.

Frida Kahlo

Kahlo painted the painting in 1939, the same year she divorced artist Diego Rivera, although they remarried a year later. According to Kahlo's friend, Fernando Gamboa, the painting was inspired by two paintings that Kahlo saw at the Louvre earlier that year: "The Two Sisters" by Théodore Chassériau and "Gabrielle d'Estrées and One of Her Sisters" by the anonymous painter.

The Two Sisters, Théodore Chassériau
(1843)

Gabrielle d'Estrées et une de ses soeurs, unknown artist
(c. 1594)

In the painting, the Frida in Mexican costume is holding a small portrait of Diego Rivera and the Frida in European costume is holding forceps. Blood spills onto her white dress from a blood vessel that has been cut by the forceps, and it seems to indicate the tragic motor accident that left her with many of her surgeries and long bedridden throughout her life. 

The blood vessel connects the two Fridas as it runs through the European Frida’s hands and connects to her heart and again connects to Mexican Frida's heart. Both Fridas show an open heart, but Mexican Frida's heart looks healthy, while European Frida's heart appears to be amputated and ill. 

Together with the constant pain that Frida is going through, the painting suggests two separate personalities, the strong Frida and the weak Frida. However, despite these differences, the blood vessel connecting the two Fridas suggests that although the two Fridas have separate personalities, they must be combined together to become perfect Frida.

The painting was exhibited along with “The Wounded Table” by Kahlo at the International Surrealist Exhibition in Mexico City in January 1940.

The Wounded Table, Frida Kahlo (1940)

It was owned by Kahlo until it was taken over by the Instituto Nacional de Bellas Artes (INBA) in 1947, which transferred it to the Museo de Arte Moderno in Mexico City, where is currently housed, on December 28, 1966.

Museo de Arte Moderno, Mexico City

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The Stories about Art Films: 5. Frida (2002), ACJ Movie Academy

Basic Info

Title: Frida

Genre: Drama

Country: United States

Language: English

Production Company: Ventanarosa, Lionsgate Films

Distributed by: Miramax Films

Running time: 123 minutes

Release date: August 29, 2002 (Venice), October 25, 2002 (United States)

Staff

Director: Julie Taymor

Producer: Sarah Green, Salma Hayek, Jay Polstein, Lizz Speed, Nancy Hardin, Lindsay Flickinger, Roberto Sneider

Based on: “Frida: A Biography of Frida Kahlo” by Hayden Herrera

Screenplay: Clancy Sigal, Diane Lake, Gregory Nava, Anna Thomas

Music: Elliot Goldenthal

Cinematography: Rodrigo Prieto

Editor: Françoise Bonnot

Cast

Salma Hayek (Frida Kahlo)

Alfred Molina (Diego Rivera)

Geoffrey Rush (Leon Trotsky)

Mía Maestro (Cristina Kahlo)

Ashley Judd (Tina Modotti)

Antonio Banderas (David Alfaro Siqueiros)

Edward Norton (Nelson Rockefeller)

Diego Luna (Alejandro Gonzalez Arias)

Margarita Sanz (Natalia Sedova)

Patricia Reyes Spíndola (Matilde Kahlo)

Roger Rees (Guillermo Kahlo)

Valeria Golino (Lupe Marín)

Saffron Burrows (Gracie)

Summary

“Frida” is a 2002 American biographical drama film directed by Julie Taymor which depicts the art and life of Frida Kahlo, a surrealist Mexican artist. The film, starring Salma Hayek, who was nominated for an Academy Award, as Frida, and Alfred Molina, her husband as Diego Rivera, is based on the book, “Frida: A Biography of Frida Kahlo” by Hayden Herrera, published in 1983. The film received generally positive reviews from critics and won two Academy Awards for Best Makeup and Best Original Score among six nominations.

Movie Review

“Splendid movie about two excellent Mexican painters and their troublesome relationship”

“Outstanding!”

“Life as art and vice versa”

“An inspiring story”

“Unsugarcoated, mostly accurate biopic of the tortured woman artist”

“The story of a great Mexican artist, with a stunning performance of Salma Hayek”

Interesting stories about the film

1. Frida Kahlo's niece was so impressed with the film that she gave Salma Hayek one of Kahlo's necklaces.

2. Chavela Vargas, who sings a song “La Llorona” to Frida in the bar, actually knew her as her lover.

3. Alfred Molina received 50 pounds for his role as Diego Rivera.

4. Salma Hayek did some paintings in the film.

5. Laura San Giacomo was originally set to play Frida Kahlo, but it was cancelled when fans objected to a non-Mexican playing the role of Frida.

6. This is the only film that Salma Hayek is nominated for Oscar.

7. Robert De Niro was interested in the role of Diego Rivera when the film was in development.

8. Jennifer Lopez was very interested in the role of Frida Kahlo.

9. Madonna, who is a fan of Frida Kahlo and owns some of her work, wanted to play her role.

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The Introduction of the Works by Amedeo Modigliani: 25. Portrait of Diego Rivera (1914)

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Modigliani Institute Korea (MIK) is currently introducing artworks of Amedeo Modigliani one by one every week.

The 25th work to introduce for this week is “Portrait of Diego Rivera (1914)”.

This work is a portrait of an expressionist style and an oil painting on cardboard with the size of 100 cm x 79 cm.

It is currently owned by the Sao Paulo Museum of Modern Art in Sao Paulo, Brazil.

This work is unfinished because there is no signature of Modigliani.

The model, Diego Rivera, was a Mexican painter who was born on December 8, 1886 and died on November 24, 1957.

He is also the husband of Frida Kahlo, a Mexican surrealist painter.

In 1921, Rivera began a mural series that depicted the lives and history of Mexicans.

His massive frescoes played a major role in establishing the Mexican mural movement in Mexican art history.

Rivera began art studies at the Academy of San Carlos in Mexico City from the age of ten.

After arriving in Europe in 1907, Rivera first studied art with “Eduardo Chicharro” in Madrid, Spain.

Then he moved to Paris, France, to live and work with many artists in Montparnasse, especially at La Ruche, where his friend Modigliani painted his portraits.

Rivera's friends, including Ilya Ehrenburg, Chaim Soutine, Amedeo Modigliani, Jeanne Hébuterne, Max Jacob, Leopold Zborowski, and Moise Kisling, are well illustrated in the painting, "Homage to Friends from Montparnasse" drawn by Marie Vorobieff-Stebelska.

At the time, Paris was a time of witnessing the beginning of cubism in paintings of artists such as Pablo Picasso, Georges Braque and Juan Gris, and Rivera enthusiastically accepted this new art movement.

Later, around 1917, Rivera, inspired by Paul Cezanne's paintings, shifted his style toward Post-Impressionism.

When Rivera stayed in Paris, he frequently visited Modigliani.

Modigliani and Rivera discussed art, drank, and sometimes argued violently about art.

For today’s work, it is a kind of sketchy oil painting that uses gray color as one of the main colors, giving the impression of frescoes that are difficult to find in other paintings of Modigliani, and some elements of the pointillism also appear.

The expression of such frescoes in this work can be assumed as Modigliani's intended suggestion, foreseeing that Rivera will become a famous painter for fresco in the future.

The round face like sun and good-looking eyes also suggest that Rivera is a friendly and supportive friend to Modigliani.

In this work, Modigliani used many curves, which make the appearance of Rivera softer, emphasizing that he is a good person and simultaneously conveying to viewers that Rivera is a person with a big fat body.

It also shows swirling spirals that are hard to find in other works of Modigliani.

The reason for the use of these spirals in this work seems that although Modigliani portrayed Rivera as a good figure, he also tried to express Rivera’s great artistic potential, including his beastly passion, outstanding imagination and strong charisma like swirling, inherent in Rivera, in this work.

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