NEW YORK.- El Museo del Barrio, New York’s premiere Latino and Latin American cultural institution, will host the only East Coast presentation of Frida Kahlo, Diego Rivera, and Twentieth-Century Mexican Art: The Jacques and Natasha Gelman Collection. Featuring more than 100 of the most significant examples of Mexican Modernism, this nationally touring exhibition explores the artistic vigor and striking imagery that emerged from the politically-charged social and cultural landscape of Mexico between the 1910s and 1950s. Included in the exhibition are rarely viewed pieces by painter Frida Kahlo and muralist Diego Rivera. The exhibition will be on view at El Museo del Barrio, 1230 Fifth Avenue at 104th Street, from April 28 through September 8, 2002. A public celebration will be held at El Museo on Sunday, April 28 from 2 pm to 5 pm, during which time free admission will be offered.  

The paintings, drawings and photographs on view in Frida Kahlo, Diego Rivera, and Twentieth-Century Mexican Art are drawn from the celebrated collection of the late cinematic mogul Jacques Gelman and his wife, Natasha, who moved to Mexico City in the early 1940s and amassed a collection admired for its breadth and quality. The exhibition features the best of the Gelman collection, with outstanding works by a broad range of artists. Each piece offers a glimpse into pre- and post-Revolutionary Mexican life and culture while also exploring the artists’ personal struggles and triumphs. In addition to major oils by Kahlo and Rivera, the exhibition also features studies for murals by José Clemente Orozco and works by David Alfaro Siqueiros and paintings by Surrealists Maria Izquierdo and Leonora Carrington.

The exhibition has attracted record numbers of viewers at the Dallas Museum of Art; the Museum of Contemporary Art, San Diego; and the Phoenix Art Museum. Following its presentation at El Museo del Barrio, the exhibition will travel to the Seattle Art Museum.



Major funding for the exhibition is provided by Vivendi Universal, Goya Foods, and JPMorgan Chase.



"El Museo del Barrio is pleased to present this landmark exhibition that will bring Mexican masterworks to the people of New York and the entire East Coast," says Susana Torruella Leval, Director of El Museo del Barrio. "In so doing, El Museo is making its own contribution to rebuilding New York City as the cultural capital of the world. We also thus reaffirm our mission of exploring and celebrating - with people of all backgrounds - the diversity and richness of Latin American and Caribbean art and culture."



"This exhibition examines social, political and cultural developments in Mexico over a period of 50 years. Through the exhibition and accompanying programs, we hope to shed light on an exciting period in the history of this pivotal Latin American nation and celebrate the works of these master artists," comments Tony Bechara, Board Chair, El Museo del Barrio.



Exhibition Highlights

Frida Kahlo, Diego Rivera, and Twentieth-Century Mexican Art: The Jacques and Natasha Gelman Collection represents the broad range of artistic developments and cultural forces influencing the development of Mexican Modernism during the last century. Periods addressed in the exhibition span from early experiments with European Cubism and Surrealism and post-revolutionary efforts to develop an indigenous Mexican aesthetic, to the diverse styles and techniques of post-World War II abstraction and realism.



The exhibition at El Museo del Barrio will include more than 100 works, all created by masters of Mexican art. Highlights include 10 exquisite paintings by Kahlo, including self-portraits, still lives and portraits of both Mrs. Gelman and Diego Rivera. Of particular interest are rarely seen works such as Autorretrato con collar (Self-Portrait with Necklace, 1953), a rendering of the artist as a young woman, and Diego en mi pensamiento (Diego on My Mind, 1943), in which her husband, Diego Rivera, is superimposed on her forehead. Additionally, nine works by Rivera will be exhibited, including Ultima hora (The Last Hour, 1915), created while the artist lived in Paris and experimented with the Cubism of Pablo Picasso and Georges Braque. Rivera is also represented in the exhibition by a sumptuous portrait of Natasha Gelman reclining amidst lilies, entitled, Retrato de la Señora Natasha Gelman (Portrait of Mrs. Natasha Gelman, 1943).



Other highlights of the exhibition include landscapes by Roberto Montenegro; evocative still lives of Juan Soriano; semi-abstract paintings by Carlos Mérida and Gunther Gerzso; images by María Izquierdo that celebrate Mexican traditions; socially charged scenes of José Clemente Orozco and David Alfaro Siqueiros; and whimsical, colorful figures of Rufino Tamayo.