Mexico 1900 -1950...exhibit at the Dallas Museum of Art

The Travelling Toe bravely traversed the highways, byways and road construction of the Metroplex area to meet up with a Dear Friend at the Dallas Museum of Art.  The reason for the trip was to view the current exhibit, "Mexico 1900 - 1950: Diego Rivera, Frida Kahlo, Jose Clemente Orozco and the Avant-Grade."

Frida Kahlo

Diego Rivera

   

Jose Clemente Orozco

After the first successful showing at Grand Palais, Paris, the exhibit was making it's only stop in the US at the DMA.  The collection is a cultural assocation of Mexico and France.  It is comprised of over 200 works of art including paintings, sculptures, drawings, photography and even films.  The exhibit explores the golden age of Mexican Modernism and how the artists of that era explored it's own cultural identity.  Many Mexican artists found influences in the Paris artististic life along with their own folk heritage.  

The Travelling Toe has been a fan of Frida Kahlo's work for some time.  Her paintings, mostly self portraits, are interesting and reflect what was happening in her life at the time. She and Diego Rivera had a turbulent married life and one of the paintings on view expresses those emotions.  There was a small gallery just of her paintings.

Because of a dead IPhone battery, The Travelling Toe was unable to take photos.  However there were very nice and inexpensive postcards at the gift shop.

This painting by Frida Kahlo below, was on exhibit and is titled "The Two Fridas".  It is oil on canvas and she painted it in 1930.  It expresses her two sides of the divorce with Diego.

Diego Rivera seems to be best remembered for his beautiful murals but there were several of his paintings in the exhibit.  It including several he finished when he was in France.  One was of a windmill and was reminiscent of the Expressionism period.  Sorry there is no picture of it as it was quite lovely.  But this painting, featured below, was so beautiful and was really happy that they had a postcard of it. It is called "Calla Lily Vendor" which he painted in 1942 and is oil on Masonite.  You can almost smell the lilies!

One last painting to share is "The Fruit Seller" painted by Olgin Costa in 1951 and is oil on canvas.  There is no way to describe the vibrant colors of this large painting. One just wanted to reach in and grab some of that luscious fruit!

If you are in the Metroplex area and have a chance, do try to see this astounding exhibit. Parking is always an issue and the going rate at the museum is $12.00.  The exhibit itself for seniors if $14.00. But the whole exhibit made the tedious travelling and the sticker price so worthwhile as these lovely works of art will eventually return to museums that cost more in travel that those two fees....just a thought!

Dallas Museum of Art