The entr�e to the exhibition was a collection of skulls and other morbid fare fashioned into a shrine. The Gallery hadn't dug up any human remains but had used bright substitutes instead. A large portrait of Rivera was surrounded by a huge collection of trinkets varying from paper mache skulls to fruit and bottles of beer. Frieda and Diego collected a number of these artefacts which have since become collectors items.
This Frieda shrine reminded me of the movie, Under the Volcano. In that movie actor Albert Finney gave an over-the-top performance that saw him wander through the fascinating Day of the Dead ceremony held every year in Mexico. This ceremony is not for the faint hearted and involves a great deal of confronting deathly imagery. This imagery of skeletons, skulls and bones are also significant motifs that recurr throughout Frieda�s works.
But the real treasures of the exhibition were the art works of Frieda and Diego and the Gallery has done a brilliant job of displaying them. Hung in a series of rooms, the works almost jump off the brightly painted walls. Standard art gallery wisdom uses white walls to display art works. The National Gallery has, temporarily, overturned this conservative rule and the use of a strong red background to display Frieda's and Diego's works provides the best argument I have ever seen for using colour when displaying art.
The other device used in this exhibition to great effect is to present works in a series of rooms which structure the patron�s tour: both delighting and revealing simultaneously. After getting a taste of mexican culture, via the 'Day of the Dead' shrine, the patron enters a large room to find a number of Diego's paintings including my favourite: a portrait of Diego�s patron, Mrs Gellman. Diego painted Gellman like a Hollywood movie queen from the forties. Mrs Gellman lays languorously on her divan in a long slinky white dress. In the background, she is framed by masses of white lilies. Cleverly, Diego has painted his model to resemble a lily. Her dress and figure are shaped like an elongated flower. It's interesting to note that Diego made most of his income through portraits and not through his more impressive murals.
But the real jewel in the crown of the exhibition is the spectacular way that Frieda�s works are displayed. Frieda's 'room' is smaller. But the size of the room belies the treasures within. There are two entrances to this room. Each entrance frames, at opposite walls, a single painting. On the left is one of her monkey series and on the right entrance her 'Diego on my Mind.' Both are brilliantly spot lit. It�s like walking into a temple devoted to art.
Photographic reproductions in art books never do justice to art works generally. Usually they get the colours wrong. Seeing the original Frieda�s and Diegos�s for the first time I was struck by how dazzling the colours of the originals were. There, in all their glory, were the colours that Frieda used to bring her works to life: the oranges in a bird of paradise flower; the black used in Frieda�s braiding of her hair; and the vivid reds and blues in her dresses and skarfs.
Adding yet more colour to an exhibition already bursting with colour was the campy tour guide of the exhibition. Dressed in bright green pants, blue shirt and tie, our bespectacled host whisked us through the exhibition space, telling us stories behind the art works. As he admitted himself, one of the juiciest things about famous people is their sex lives - something often left out or skipped over by biographers and Frieda and Diego were know to have very colourful relationships. Diego even slept with a relative of Frieda, and Frieda had relationships with men and women.
It's was a pity that there was no one as colourful as the tour guide at the series of talks given by academics that I went to later in the afternoon. Instead of giving us the juicy stuff the academics, who's speaking skills varied from excellent to sleep-inducing, gave us the 'non-juicy' account of the two painter�s lives.
Of course there were many fascinating facts to recount. Frieda had been severely crippled by ill health and a serious accident at 18. She spent much of her life painting in bed and illness and death are themes that frequent her works. And she used to sleep with a skeleton above her bed!
Other humorous and not so humorous personal details listed in the lectures included Diego's temper and his habit of pulling out a gun and threatening people with it when he became angry, especially over political disagreements. Amusingly, Diego was considered too communist for the Americans and too capitalist for the communists. On one visit to the USSR he was deported for being too liberal.
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