Sachs Covered Bridge; Adams County, PA

Sachs Covered Bridge; Adams County, PA
Sachs Covered Bridge; Adams County, PA

Wednesday, April 17, 2019

Frida Kahlo: "Still Life: Pitahayas" (1938) at the Madison Museum of Contemporary Art



"It is fuchsia on the outside and hides the subtlety of a whitish-gray pulp flecked with little black spots that are its seeds inside. This is a wonder! Fruits are like flowers: they speak to us in provocative language and teach us things that are hidden.” Frida Kahlo on this painting

"Still Life: Pitahayas" was back on display at the Madison Museum of Contemporary Art until February 3, 2019. I think fewer than 20 US museums have her art in their collections. The museum lacks galleries to permanently display art that it owns, which disappoints me. I wonder what pitahayas taste like.



 About "Still Life: Pitahayas":
"Pitahayas: more than a still life–a self-portrait of Frida Kahlo"
https://artsandculture.google.com/exhibit/TwJCvMnyaXG2LQ





This recent episode of the BBC's The Forum--"Frida Kahlo: A Life in Colour"--is a helpful discussion among leading experts on Kahlo.  https://www.bbc.co.uk/radio/play/w3cswpsl [44 minutes]

Website with images of paintings mentioned in this show:
https://www.fridakahlo.org/

I took the above pictures this past winter. Last month I visited the National Museum of Women in the Arts, which is in DC. Frida Kahlo's self-portrait there:



The note in her hand reminds of Chinese paintings that have calligraphy by the artist. I think it would be interesting if more current artists would sometimes include writings like poems with or in their paintings.

By the way, an interesting quotation floating online seems to be incorrectly attributed to Frida Kahlo:
"I used to think I was the strangest person in the world but then I thought, there are so many people in the world, there must be someone just like me who feels bizarre and flawed in the same ways I do. 
I would imagine her, and imagine that she must be out there thinking of me too.
well, I hope that if you are out there you read this and know that yes, it’s true I’m here, and I’m just as strange as you."

Someone asked Quote Investigator about the source. What possibly happened was that someone wrote this on a postcard with Kahlo's image. The card got posted online, and some assumed that the image of Kahlo meant she said it.
https://quoteinvestigator.com/tag/frida-kahlo/