Author(s): Tansy Curtin

Art History

At the centre of the story of twentieth-century Mexican art, Frida Kahlo and Diego Rivera are known not simply for their artistic contribution to the nation but also for their fascinating and all-consuming love affair. Twenty years her senior, Rivera was already a celebrated artist when he met Kahlo in 1928. Kahlo had only just begun to paint following a catastrophic bus crash, which had left her with severe injuries and bedridden for several months. After their marriage, the couple became Mexico's art celebrities, with their lives and dramas covered in local newspapers. Kahlo and Rivera were artists of international renown, yet their story, and that of their contemporaries, is also deeply enmeshed with their sense of Mexicanness. This publication replete with luscious full-page reproductions and contextual photographs introduces us to Frida and Diego and the world they inhabited - their art, friends and above all else, their mutual love of Mexico's people and culture.