The Lucas Museum of Narrative Art will show a Frida Kahlo self-portrait
06 October 2021
The Lucas Museum of Narrative Art, set to open in 2023, explores academically rooted and mass-produced art genres as well as new ways of creative engagement. Painting, sculpture, photography, video, performance, and installation are all kinds of visual storytelling art that can provide a window into lived experience, provoke emotion, stimulate imagination, or move us to action.
Alice Neel's Fish Market (1947), which was included in the artist's well-received Met retrospective, Judy Baca's archive of her Great Wall of Los Angeles project, a Frida Kahlo self-portrait, and a painting of a nymph attributed to Artemisia Gentileschi and an associate, which was purchased for $2.1 million at Sotheby's last year, are among the most recent acquisitions.
The museum will show one of Frida Kahlo's celebrated self-portraits, Self-Portrait Dedicated to Dr Eloesser, completed in 1940.
The divorce of Frida Kahlo and Diego Rivera in 1939 was thought to have influenced the style of paintings she produced at the time.
She was also influenced by much of the Catholic Christian iconography present in Mexico, where the crucifixion and its gruesome elements are emphasized. She had a lot of this kind of Christian art in her house, and many of her self portraits are along the same lines.
As the title says, Self Portrait Dedicated to Dr Eloesser is dedicated to the doctor who treated her right foot pain during her stay in San Francisco. A necklace of thorns is seen in the image, which looks to be drawing blood from her neck. She is wearing an upside-down earring that looks like a hand. Another hand can be seen near the bottom of the artwork, grasping a white ribbon with illegible writing. Her hair is styled in an updo with flowers. There are several enormous brown leaves and twigs behind her, and the sky is gloomy and brown monochrome in color. This could be a reflection of the feelings she was having at the time.
The color pattern of Self Portrait Dedicated to Dr Eloesser is also influenced by Mexican ornamental arts. In her paintings, the color combinations are unique, yet this is owing to the unusual combinations seen in nature. The bougainvillea, which comes in a variety of purple, pink, and yellow color combinations, is one of her favorite sources of inspiration.
Info about the Museum at the link below.
