Displaying items by tag: modernists

For years the Sterling and Francine Clark Art Institute, with its magnificent collection of 19th century art (among other goodies) has felt like a bastion against the world outside its gates, a step back in time to the glories of Winslow Homer, John Singer Sargent and the French Impressionists. (After that it was no Modernists need apply for the ultraconservative Mr. Clark.)

The thoroughly modern new museum isn’t a refutation of the old one, though. The architects don’t drag it kicking and screaming into the 21st century, even if not everyone wants to come along. It’s way too Zen for any such temperamental demonstrations.

Atlanta’s High Museum of Art has joined forces with the Art Gallery of Ontario to present the exhibition Frida & Diego: Passion, Politics, and Painting. The show, which features approximately 140 works by the Mexican modernists Frida Kahlo (1907-1954) and Diego Rivera (1996-1957), includes works from Mexico’s Museo Dolores Olmedo, the Jacques and Natasha Gelman Collection of Mexican Art, and the Galeria Arvil. The works are presented in pairs based on chronology and theme including Mexican identity, maternity, and portraiture.

Kahlo and Rivera, who married in 1929, were known for their tumultuous relationship as well as their involvement in Mexican politics and culture. Frida & Diego aims to take the focus off of the personal lives and explore the ways in which they influenced each other as artists.

Frida & Diego: Passion, Politics, and Painting will be on view through May 12, 2013. The High Museum of Art is the only museum in the U.S. to host the exhibition, which is the largest presentation of the couple’s art ever to appear together.