The next day, our main program was to visit one of the most anticipated locations, the Frida Kahlo Museum. The house is known to everyone as Casa Azul, or Blue House, because of the bright cobalt blue color that covers its walls. This building is not only an exhibition space, but also Frida’s birthplace, where she spent most of her life and where she passed away in 1954. As we entered the inner garden and rooms, time stood still. Frida’s presence was everywhere, from her personal belongings to her easel to the traditional clothes she wore to hide her physical pain and express her unique style.
Frida Kahlo’s life was full of passion and tragedy. When she was young, a metal rod penetrated her body in a serious bus accident, which left her with chronic pain and multiple surgeries for the rest of her life. She began painting while confined to bed, using a mirror mounted above her bed to create her famous self-portraits, which she used to process her own inner world and physical pain. A defining and turbulent thread in her life was her marriage to the much older, renowned painter Diego Rivera. Their relationship was fraught with infidelity and artistic rivalry, but they were inseparable, and Casa Azul served as their shared home for a time, hosting the most important intellectuals and artists of their time.
The history of the house includes the fact that in 1958, after Frida’s death, Diego Rivera donated the house and its collection to the Mexican people as a memorial to his wife’s extraordinary life. The museum has preserved the original state of the living spaces, such as the kitchen with its folk pottery or the studio where Frida created her world-changing paintings. Casa Azul is now one of the most popular cultural destinations in Mexico City, a symbol of female strength and artistic perseverance.
I really wanted to follow in the footsteps of another artist who is extremely important to me in Mexico. I have long wanted to visit the last residence of the famous art deco painter Tamara de Lempicka. She settled a few hundred kilometers from Mexico City, in the city of Cuernavaca, in the immediate vicinity of a volcano, where she spent the last years of her life. This house, “Tres Bambús”, where her ashes were finally scattered in the crater of the Popocatépetl volcano, according to her wishes, could have been a special place of pilgrimage. Unfortunately, this time it did not fit into our time due to the fast pace, but I hope that maybe one day I will have the opportunity to go there.
