Teilen
130910: Bank Austria Kunstforum Frida Kahlo
Bank Austria Kunstforum
Frida Kahlo
01.09.10 – 05.12.10
Stunning icon of modernity
Already prior to the Frida Kahlo retrospective at Vienna’s Bank Austria Kunstforum, the Kahlo-cult in the media was unusually intensive.
The phenomenon of the enormous public attendance, something that even took the marketing department of the Martin-Gropius-Bau in Berlin by surprise, obviously cannot be ignored. The retrospective in Berlin, to which people travelled from far away and queued for up to 8 hours making the exhibition one of the best visited of all times, lets us wonder what constitutes the legend Kahlo.
One part is the emancipatory dimension of Frida Kahlo’s self –empowerment to position herself as an icon. From this point of view, the photographs on which she is depicted are especially interesting. Admittedly, her stiff posture is mainly connected to the spinal injury, but among these works are also staged photographs in which Kahlo directed her own performance – especially in Nicolas Murray’s photographs.
In addition to her stylisation as a feminist artist – particularly since the 1970’s - one must also keep in mind that she belonged to an intellectual elite, in which leftist, revolutionary politics and artistic avant-garde cultivated a very personal exchange. One of the photos displayed in Berlin speaks volumes. On the photo: Leo Trotsky, who fled to Mexico, and a friend of Kahlo’s. Next to Kahlo: Diego Rivera and André Breton. Who would not have liked to participate in their conversation!
Kahlo’s art does was not dwarfed by any of this. One often encounters an odd contrast between fairytale-like popularity and magical image-inventions on the one hand, and rudiments of strategies of modernity pointing into the direction of independence of form and colour on the other. This mixture may at times be disconcerting, but Kahlo’s paintings can be interpreted in the tradition in which artists repeatedly depict their own portrait, e.g. Dürer. Indeed - Kahlo narrates
her sufferings in her paintings (caused by a bus accident), but behind all of this lie stringent processes of formalisation.
It would be dubious if the success of Kahlo’s exhibition would mainly be ascribed to her seemingly obvious biographical narrative. In any case, it is worth queuing for the exhibit. On account of the enormous organizational effort these kinds of retrospectives are rare. Should one have to queue, one could start reading the gripping and enlightening catalogue. Yet it does not include enough historical details. Why one eloquently points to the stereotype pop star image ascribed to Kahlo, but writes so little about post-revolutionary Mexico, its cultural understanding, the art scene, and the general conditions for women, is incomprehensible.
By Roland Schöny
Bank Austria Kunstforum
1010 Vienna, Freyung 8
Tel: +43 1 711 91 57 42
http://www. kunstforumwien.at
Opening hours: Tue – Sun 10 a.m. – 7 p.m.
Mehr Texte von translated and summarized by: Liz Wollner-Grandville
 |
|
|
||||||||||
|
||||||||||||
130910
Bank Austria Kunstforum
1010 Wien, Freyung 8
Tel: +43 1 537 33 26, Fax:
Email: office@kunstforumwien.at
http://www.kunstforumwien.at
Öffnungszeiten: Mo-So 10.00-19.00 h
Fr 10.00 - 21.00 h
Bank Austria Kunstforum
1010 Wien, Freyung 8
Tel: +43 1 537 33 26, Fax:
Email: office@kunstforumwien.at
http://www.kunstforumwien.at
Öffnungszeiten: Mo-So 10.00-19.00 h
Fr 10.00 - 21.00 h
