31
Diego Rivera
Desnudo sentado con brazos levantados (Frida Kahlo) (Seated Nude with Raised Arms, Frida Kahlo) (G. 893)
- Estimate
- $8,000 - 12,000
S. 20 1/8 x 15 1/8 in. (51.1 x 38.4 cm)
Further Details
“I realized that the most wonderful part of my life had been my love for Frida.”Nude with Raised Arms (Frida Kahlo) is a rare depiction of Kahlo as a nude, drawing parallels between her own lithographic nude self portrait made in 1932; although only two years separate the two works, they are a world apart in their tonal depictions. Rivera presents his wife as attractive and seductive, seated at the edge of a bed wearing stockings and high heels as she fastens her beaded necklace. Notably in this depiction, Rivera removes the signs of polio and scarring from a streetcar accident that in reality afflicted Kahlo’s legs, a tender idealization of her beauty. Meanwhile, Kahlo’s 1932 lithograph is a portrait of pain, concerned with her tragic and recent miscarriage. Pointedly devoid of the sensual allure Rivera’s nude embodies, Kahlo still portrays herself wearing the same beaded necklace as in her husband’s portrait of her.—Diego Rivera
Frida Kahlo, El aborto (Frida and the Miscarriage), 1932,
Fundacion Dolores Olmedo, Mexico City. Image: Photo Schalkwijk/Art Resource/Scala, Florence
Full-Cataloguing
Diego Rivera
Mexican | B. 1886 D. 1957Diego Rivera began drawing at the age of three, and by ten he was enrolled at the San Carlos Academy in Mexico City. In 1907, he traveled to Europe on a scholarship to continue his artistic studies. Whilst in Paris, Rivera embraced the advent of Cubism, and later Post-Impressionism, taking inspiration from such European artists as Picasso and Cézanne.
In 1921, Rivera returned to Mexico and became involved in the government-sponsored Mexican mural program. He became best-known for his frescoes painted in a distinctive style characterized by bold colors and ample, Renaissance-inspired figures. Rivera was an atheist and joined the Mexican Communist party in 1922. He was married five times, including twice to Frida Kahlo, with whom he had a famously volatile relationship.