A large portrait of a glamorous, red-haired European woman reclining on a couch surrounded by calla lilies (see page 36) is a key work in the Auckland Art Gallery’s upcoming show, Frida Kahlo and Diego Rivera: Art and Life in Modern Mexico.
The 1943 oil painting, by Rivera, is Portrait of Natasha Gelman, an art collector who, with her husband Jacques Gelman, owned almost every item of the 160-plus works in the exhibition.
The Gelmans, who arrived separately in Mexico shortly before the outbreak of World War II, became patrons of many of the country’s upcoming artists, including Kahlo and her husband Rivera.
Kahlo was overshadowed by her husband for most of her life, but since their deaths in the late 1950s, she has become elevated to super-stardom, not only as an artist but also as an icon of feminist ideals and movements such as the Chicanos in the United States, a Mexi-American lobby group.
Her distinctive style has
