This past Sunday I found myself bored with nothing to do so I decided to hop in my car and just drive. I ended up at the Fresno Art Museum which ended up being a treat. I quickly learned that there was a Nickolas Muray exhibit showing various photographs he had taken of the amazing Mexican painter Frida Kahlo.
I wandered around the museum checking out different exhibits, and saved the best for last. I showed up an hour before closing, meaning I had the entire place to myself.
While I wasn’t allowed to photograph inside the museum, I managed to find some of my favorite (photographs) online to share with you all.
Frida and Diego Tizapán – 1937
Nickolas Muray
This photograph stood out to me because of Frida’s chingona stare at Diego. Just from this photo you could tell that it was she who wore the pants.
The two images above are probably Nickolas Muray’s most famous photographs. Both were taken at his studio in New York City, before she left for Paris.
The first photograph of Frida in a magenta rebozo hung, for years, over Diego and Frida’s bed.
On the back she signed,
“Nick, with all my heart, with all my love, with all my memory, I think of you.
Frida”.
Throughout their time spent together Frida began falling for Nickolas, and he for her. They wrote to each other frequently, especially while she was in Paris, criticizing the aristocratic , snooty Europeans. I spent a majority of my time at the museum reading the letters exchanged between Frida and Nickolas. Their exchange of words was beautiful and would put and any Nicholas Sparks novel to shame.
In a letter from Nick Muray to Frida dated February 8, 1939, he wrote:
“Darlingest Xochitl.
The first reaction to your wire was to extend my arms and embrace you to kiss the tears away from your sweet cheeks and swallow the salty sorrow of your heart.
Your Nick.
(all of him)”
In a letter from Frida to Nick dated February 16, 1939, she wrote:
“I could kill that guy and eat it afterwards…I have decided to send everything to hell and scram from this rotten Paris before I get nuts myself…I’d rather sit on the floor in the market of Toluca and sell tortillas.
One special kiss on your neck.
Your Xochitl.”
This painting by Frida Kahlo was given to Nick in exchange for his financial help while she was in Paris. One of Frida’s darker paintings, this one in particular depicted how her life was shaped by destruction.
My experience wandering through the Fresno Art Museum alone was magical. I think everyone should go to a museum alone at least once. It gives you the chance to escape into the world that the artists captured in each painting and photograph, and a chance to escape from your own reality. Continuing my date with myself I ended my night with tacos, because any time is a good time for tacos.
-M
Shell Alexandra 