NYAB Event - “Mirror Mirror……Frida Kahlo Photographs” Exhibition

“Mirror Mirror……Frida Kahlo Photographs” Exhibition

Throckmorton Fine Art

This event has ended.

Photographs of Frida Kahlo by 20 renowned artists including Gisele Freund, Nickolas Muray, Juan Guzman, Diego Rivera, Edward Weston,
Manuel Alvarez Bravo, Fritz Henle and Dora Maar.

THROCKMORTON FINE ART presents a major show of photographic art, “Mirror Mirror….Frida Kahlo Photographs” featuring more than thirty rare and vintage photographs of the Mexican artist by twenty of the most legendary photographers of the 20th century.

Among the 20 acclaimed photographers whose images of Frida Kahlo are featured in the Throckmorton “Mirror Mirror….Frida Kahlo Photographs” show are five works by the great German-born photographer Gisele Freund (1908-2000) taken during a two year period beginning in 1950 when Freund was immersed in Mexican culture and spent a good deal of time at Kahlo and Diego Rivera’s home. Freund won many honors including the French Chevalier de la Legion d’honneur in 1983. Her powerful images of Kahlo are a testament to Kahlo’s strength and endurance during incredibly trying times — they are among the last before her death in 1954.

In a new book, FRIDA KAHLO The Gisele Freund Photographs, published by Abrams with texts by Kahlo’s biographer Gérard de Cortanze and art historian Lorraine Audric, there are 100 rare images of Kahlo and unpublished commentary by Freund, who came to know Kahlo and Rivera as a fiercely passionate and irascible couple, witnessing their domestic life the way few had. Kahlo’s health was deteriorating at the time, and she was often in pain, largely a result of a tragic 1926 accident when a bus she was riding in collided with a tram, leaving the teenage Kahlo with a crushed spine and right leg, among many injuries.

Kahlo’s career as a painter was borne as a result of her injuries, as she had previously planned on becoming a doctor. She endured countless surgeries throughout her life, spent much time in bed or in a wheelchair, and suffered debilitating periods of intense pain complicated by the habit-inducing drugs she was given. Her German-born father and Mexican mother had raised her at La Casa Azul and her studio and gardens there were where she sought refuge and inspiration throughout her life, which ended before her 47th birthday.
Many 20th century photographic legends shot images of Frida Kahlo and Casa Azul throughout her life. Spencer Throckmorton has selected three vintage photographs taken at Casa Azul by the acclaimed photographer Graciela Iturbide, whose photographs have frequently been exhibited at Throckmorton Fine Art. She photographed Frida’s sealed room there after it was opened.
He says, “I am thrilled that Graciela Iturbide’s photographs of Frida’s home will be on view. Graciela is being honored with The Cornell Capa Lifetime Achievement Award on April 30th at the 31st Annual Infinity Awards ceremony of the International Center of Photography here in New York. It is a wonderful tribute to her talents.”