Introduction In May 1931 photographer Nickolas Muray (1892-1965) - PowerPoint PPT Presentation

Introduction In May 1931 photographer Nickolas Muray (1892-1965) traveled to Mexico on vacation where he met Frida Kahlo (1907-1954), a woman he would never forget. The two started a romance that continued on and off for the next ten years and a friendship that lasted until her death in 1954. Approximately fifty photographic portraits taken by Nickolas Muray of Frida Kahlo comprise the exhibition Frida Kahlo: Through the Lens of Nickolas Muray. The photographs, dating from 1937 to 1946, explore Muray’s unique perspective; in the 1930s and 1940s he was Frida Kahlo's friend, lover and confidant. Muray's photographs bring to light Kahlo's deep interest in her Mexican heritage, her life and the people significant to her with whom she shared a close friendship.

Born in Hungary, Nickolas Muray became a successful New York fashion and commercial photographer known for his portraits of celebrities, politicians, socialites and artists. Having experimented with color in his work from early on, he found his most colorful model in Frida Kahlo. Muray was a prolific photographer, his archives containing over 25,000 images. Muray photographed Kahlo more than any of his other subjects. These portraits of Kahlo have made their way into a variety of media and popular culture, and are integral to the world’s understanding of who Frida Kahlo was as an individual behind her artwork.

Nickolas Muray and Frida Kahlo In 1923 Nickolas Muray met the Mexican artist Miguel Covarrubias who had come to New York with a six-month grant from the Mexican Government. Soon after his arrival, Covarrubias started working for Vanity Fair magazine where the two became friends. In 1931 Muray traveled to Mexico to vacation with Covarrubias and his wife, Rosa. Since Covarrubias had been a student of Diego Rivera it was inevitable that Frida Kahlo and Nickolas Muray would meet. Frida with Nick, (detail) From that meeting came a lifelong Coyoacán, 1939 friendship and ten-year long love affair. Digital pigment print on Hahnemuhle Photo Rag paper

Frida with Diego and Miguel Miguel Covarrubias at Easel, 1940 Covarrubias, Tizapán, 1937 Digital pigment print on Digital pigment print on Hahnemuhle Hahnemuhle Photo Rag paper Photo Rag paper

Miguel Covarrubias and Nickolas Muray became friends when they met in New York in 1923. After Muray's third divorce in 1931, he went to Mexico where Covarrubias and his wife Rosa introduced him to many of their artist friends, including Frida Kahle, wife of Miguel's former teacher Diego Rivera. Largely self-taught, Covarrubias published his first illustration in 1920. By the time he went to New York in 1923, his drawings had been widely published in Mexico and Cuba as well as in South and Central America. In New York, he Miguel Covarrubias at Easel, 1940 earned prompt recognition as a brilliant illustrator, Digital pigment print on stage designer and caricaturist. His work has been Hahnemuhle Photo Rag paper shown at the Guggenheim Museum and the Whitney Museum of American Art.

• When visiting Mexico, Muray stayed at the home of Miguel and Rosa Covarrubias. They lived in the small town of Tizapán, today part of Mexico City. • By the time Muray shot these photographs of Frida in the Covarrubias home, he was very much in love. Frida's gaze as she looks at him suggests that she too had fallen in love with him.

Frida, Tizapán, 1937 Digital pigment print on Hahnemuhle Photo Rag paper

In the 1920s, Muray was a well-known celebrity photographer and active participant in New York's Bohemian art scene. In the following decades, he focused successfully on commercial photography, eventually becoming a master of the emerging color processes. Muray was a champion fencer; he represented the United States at the Olympic Games in 1928 and 1932. However, in this caricature portrait drawn by Miguel Covarrubias, he is not Miguel Covarrubias really portrayed as an Olympic fencer but Print of Caricature of rather as a lady-killer. Nick stands above the Nickolas Muray, c. 1927 woman he has just conquered not with his sword, but with his heart.

• Frida Kahlo and Diego Rivera remarried in the summer of 1941 after nearly two years of separation. • Regarding her marital relationship, Kahlo once told French photographer Gisèle Freund: "I suffered two grave accidents in my life. One in which a streetcar knocked me down. The other accident is Diego." Frida and Diego, Tizapán, 1937 Digital pigment print on Hahnemuhle Photo Rag paper

Frida within Picture Frame, Coyoacán, 1938 Digital pigment print on Hahnemuhle Photo Rag paper Frida places her face within the frame she will use for the self-portrait hanging on the wall to her left, Remembrance of an Open Wound, 1938. At age 18, Frida was involved in a gruesome traffic accident that left her severely debilitated. She began painting during her recovery the following year. Much of her art references the physical and emotional pain she suffered all of her adult life.

Diego with gas mask, Coyoacán, 1938 Frida, Countryside, 1938 Digital pigment print on Hahnemuhle Digital pigment print on Photo Rag paper Hahnemuhle Photo Rag paper

Toward the end of 1938, talk of war compelled people to buy gas masks. If war were to break out people thought these masks would protect them from breathing toxic fumes. Diego with gas mask, Coyoacán, 1938 Digital pigment print on Hahnemuhle Photo Rag paper

Frida Icon, San Angel , 1938 Silver gelatin print Frida in Pink and Green Blouse, Coyoacán, 1938 Carbon process print

Frida and Diego, kissing, Coyoacán, Frida and Diego, Coyoacán, 1938 1938 Silver gelatin print Digital pigment print on Hahnemuhle Photo Rag paper

Frida in Front of the Cactus Organ Frida, Coyoacán, 1938 Fence, San Angel, 1938 Digital pigment print on Digital pigment print on Hahnemuhle Hahnemuhle Photo Rag paper Photo Rag paper

Frida with her sister Cristina, Nickolas Frida, Countryside, 1938 Muray, and Rosa Covarrubias, Coyoacán, Digital pigment print on 1939 Hahnemuhle Photo Rag Digital pigment print on Hahnemuhle Photo paper Rag paper

Frida with Nick, (detail) Coyoacán, Frida painting The Two Fridas, 1939 Coyoacán, 1939 Digital pigment print on Silver gelatin print Hahnemuhle Photo Rag paper

After she returned from France in 1939, Diego Rivera asked Frida for a divorce. During the first year of their separation she produced The Two Fridas . In it she portrays herself twice: on the right is the Frida who lives sustained by Diego's love, and on the left is the Frida he no longer loves. Painting in photograph: Frida Kahlo The Two Fridas, 1939 Frida painting The Two Fridas, Oil on canvas Coyoacán, 1939 Collection Museo de Arte Moderno, Consejo Silver gelatin print Nacional para la Cultura y las Artes - Instituto Nacional de Bellas Artes, Mexico City, Mexico

Frida with Olmeca Figurine, Coyoacán 1939 Carbon process print

Frida, Coyoacán, 1939 Frida with Picasso Earrings, Digital pigment print on Hahnemuhle Coyoacán, 1939 Photo Rag paper Digital pigment print on Hahnemuhle Photo Rag paper

The hand-shaped earrings Frida wears in the photograph were a gift to her from Pablo Picasso, who she met in 1939 when her work was exhibited in Paris. Picasso, along with artists Kandinsky, Miró, Paalen and Tanguy among others, praised Frida's paintings. While in Paris, her small self-portrait The Frame was purchased by the Louvre. Frida with Picasso Earrings, Coyoacán, 1939 Digital pigment print on Hahnemuhle Photo Rag paper

Frida with Blue Satin Blouse, New York, 1939 Carbon process print

In 1930 Muray traveled to Europe after deciding he would begin photographing in color. In Germany he purchased a Jos-pe camera. With its three glass plates and filters, it captured delicate colors and true flesh tones. He began to work with color photography against the advice of critics and other photographers who believed the technique would never be good enough to attract the public. He proved everyone wrong. His innovative work became a sensation following the publication of the first color advertisement ever: a color photograph cover for the June 1931 issue of Ladies' Home Journal.

Frida on White Bench, New York, 1939 Digital pigment print on Hahnemuhle Photo Rag paper In the fall of 1939, during her long visit to New York for a solo exhibition, Nick and Frida were at the height of their love affair. One Sunday morning, Muray photographed Frida sitting on a white bench in his studio. A few days later, she left for Paris where she was to participate in a group exhibition.

Frida Kahlo, The Breton Portrait, 1939 Carbon process print Frida with Magenta Rebozo, New York, 1939 Digital pigment print on Hahnemuhle Photo Rag paper

In the spring of 1938, Nickolas Muray visited Mexico, where he and his wife Jacqueline were guests of Diego Rivera; there he met André Breton, the famed Surrealist. Breton commissioned a portrait of Kahlo from Muray , and “The Breton Portrait”, a black and white variant of the portrait of Frida Kahlo in Magenta Rebozo, was the result. Frida Kahlo, The Breton Portrait, Muray made only one print of this 1939 image, Breton’s copy. Carbon process print

Classic Frida (with Magenta Rebozo), New York, 1939 Carbon print