Diego Rivera's and Frida Kahlo's 'Twin Houses' and Studios

Revolutionary Architecture

Nothing Diego Rivera or Frida Kahlo did was remotely conventional. So when Diego set out to build a house to be shared with his wife, Frida, in Colonia San Ángel, it is not surprising that he asked his friend and fellow muralist, the young architect Juan O'Gorman, to design it.

A recent graduate of the National Autonomous University of Mexico, O’Gorman began his architectural career designing spare, rectilinear houses and buildings in the style of the Functionalist architect Le Corbusier. The result: completion in 1932 of the Casas Gemelas, Twin Houses. Diego's is the red and white house; Frida's is the blue. A bridge famously connects the two houses. The building is distinguished for being one of the first constructed in the Functionalist style in Latin America.

'Twin Houses' of Diego Rivera (red and white) and Frida Kahlo (blue) 
famously connected by a  footbridge!
The cactus fence is traditional in Mexican rural pueblos.

Functionalism sought to meet the basic needs of its users, but it was also a movement in rebellion against the excessive ornamentation of the 19th century. During the Porfiriato, the reign of dictator Porfirio Díaz (1876-1911), who was an avid Francophile, the preferred styles in Mexico City were ornate French Second Empire and Beaux Arts. Wealthy Mexicans even continued to build homes in these styles after the Revolution (1910-17) in La Roma and other neighborhoods west of Centro that had been created at the beginning of the 20th century. O'Gorman and other leftist architects sought to break with these traditions and create a post-revolutionary, modern style. 

The embodiment of this radical change in the "Twin Houses" is strikingly evident in their contrast with their neighbors in Colonia of San Ángel, due west of Coyoacán. As in Coyoacán, the dominant architectural style in San Ángel is Spanish Colonial. Remarkably, the houses are not particularly jarring aesthetically vis-a-vis the surrounding ones, perhaps because of the traditional Mexican cactus fence that separates the house and property from the street.

Ornate Spanish Colonial door—
the very ornamentation 
the Functionalists rebelled against.

Historical Context

When the Mexican Revolution (1910-1917) led to the development of a new government during the 1920s, it was time not only to rebuild the country but to generate a new image of unity and change. An earlier post discussed Diego's time in Europe and his return (1921) to Mexico at the request of President Obregón and Secretary of Public Education Vasconcelos in order to develop a public art to foster national identity. Diego threw himself passionately into the work, which resulted in what is recognized today as the Mexican Mural Movement.

It makes sense that all the arts would be called upon to contribute to this national project. As a new architectural concept, Functionalism seemed to serve not only these interests, but the needs of a new generation as well. Not only did the Functionalists seek to use new construction materials (cement, glass and metal), but they tended toward an aesthetic that was industrial and modern—an aesthetic that could open the door to new construction methods and new styles of life for a new age.

Diego Rivera's Studio at Casas Gemelas

One enters the property facing Diego's House. When I saw the ascending spiral, I immediately thought of Frida's severe mobility issues and thought, "Oh, this is great—no stairs!"

Spiral Entryway to Rivera's House-Studio

But I was wrong!

Spiral Staircase.

On both first and second floors, doors open from landings to give entry to the house. All I could think was, "How on earth did Frida Kahlo—with her serious mobility issues—ever manage these stairs?" The short answer is: She didn't—or at least, she didn't for very long. (See: Frida Kahlo House Museum for the full story)

Walking into Diego's studio, I had an unexpected—and very positive—visceral reaction to the space. The studio is two stories tall, and the light is extraordinary. The east wall is glass, but light also enters the room from windows mounted in soffit-like structures next to the roof. The effect is nearly indescribable—diffuse yet remarkably full.

Diego Rivera's Studio
floor to ceiling windows, 
and full of Diego's collected art objects.

The hardwood floors are brilliantly waxed. I had the feeling the artist was expected to return at any moment.

Diego's Studio is upstairs; 
in the window are Judas figures.

Diego had a large collection of papier mache Judas figures (ritually burned the night before Easter Sunday) and calaveras (skeletons).

Judas figure

Calaveras, skeleton figures

Lovers of everything 'Mexican', Diego and Frida collected prehispanic pieces (about 59,000!); folk art from all parts of Mexico; Judas and calaveras figures; and many juguetes (toys, miniatures). 

Many prehispanic pieces are now in the garden of Frida Kahlo's Casa Azul, Blue House, in Coyoacán, but the majority of the pieces are housed in the Diego Rivera Anahuacalli Museum, also in Coyoacán. One exception is this object, below, exhibited in Diego's studio. It must have been in the studio when Rivera was alive because it appears in the painting he made of his own studio (below).

Cha'ac mool (Mayan name)
prehispanic altar for hyman sacrific

Diego's painting of the jumble in his studio, including the cha'ac mool (bottom right), calaveras, Judas figures, and a beautiful, reclining woman—possibly Dolores Olmedo?

Rivera's painting of his studio

Rivera's Painting 

In this studio, Diego Rivera painted over 3,000 portraits and portrayals of everyday Mexican life. Of Rivera's style, it has been said:

Rivera defines his solid, somewhat stylized human figures by precise outlines rather than by internal modeling. The flattened, simplified figures are set in crowded, shallow spaces and are enlivened with bright, bold colours. The Indians, peasants, conquistadores, and factory workers depicted combine monumentality of form with a mood that is lyrical and at times elegiac.

Indigenous Woman
a painting in the studio

Niña, little girl

Diego lived and worked in this house until his death in 1957.

Frida Kahlo at Casas Gemelas

When in 1934 Diego and Friday returned from a three-year stay in the United States, they moved into Diego's houses. Frida lived and painted there for six years. I actually asked a guard how on earth Frida managed all the stairs. The guard smiled as she answered—clearly, it was not the first time she had answered the question! She said that Diego had full-time help whose job it was to make it easier for Frida to move around the house.

Frida Kahlo at Casas Gemelas

But Frida did important work at the Casas Gemelas, including her paintings Lo que el agua me dio (What the water gave me), El ojo avizor (The Lookout), and El difunto Dimas (Dead Dimas). Only one of Frida's paintings remains in her house at Casas Gemelas:

Frida painted this surreal set of images 
while sitting in the bathtub. 
Her feet are reflected in the water. 

The Empire State Building 
rises from an erupting volcano; 
Below, left, is one of her corseted dresses.
She lies nude beside it. 
Her German father and Mexican mother 
are portrayed standing (lower right). 
In front of them is a couch 
where Frida reclines with a woman 
(Frida was bisexual). 

Days after her father's death in 1941, Frida moved back to the Casa Azul in Coyoacán, where she had grown up and where she died in 1954.

Originally published in Jenny'a Journal of Mexican Culture.

Still Curious?

Related Jenny's Journal posts:

• Diego Rivera: European Apprenticeship and Mexican Homecoming; 
• Diego Rivera: Artist for Mexico's People; 
• Frida Kahlo Museum: Behind the Green Door;
• Dolores Olmedo Museum: Olmedo was an enterprising businesswoman who made a fortune in bricks and cement at a time when most Mexican women remained at home; she modeled tens of times for Rivera paintings. Diego directed her acquisition of important prehispanic artifacts now housed, with an important collection of paintings by Rivera and Frida Kahlo, at the museum she established on her Spanish hacienda in Xochimilco.  

Interesting discussion of Diego Rivera's impact on public art in the United States.

The Rivera-Kahlo House Museum
(red/yellow star)
is in Colonia San Ángel Inn,
just east of Colonia San Ángel (red)
in Delegación Álvaro Obregón,
in western Mexico City.

Frida Kahlo House Museum: Behind the Green Door

Like most Mexican houses, the walls of Frida Kahlo's and Diego Rivera's Casa Azul (Blue House) rise straight up along the sidewalk. Reed and I are forever trying to catch a glimpse of what's behind the doors.

Muséo Frida Kahlo, Coyoacán 

But we were not at all prepared for what awaited us when we walked through the green door of Frida Kahlo's Casa Azul.

Secret Garden

The Garden, unexpectedly large,
opens out to the right;
at the left, is Casa Azul.

Several large trees grow
in well-tended plantings.  

Winding paths 
lined with pedregal (volcanic stones) 
beckon visitors to wander. 

Pre-Columbian stone sculptures are set among the plantings; 
stone benches invite quiet reflections.

'Ring' used in Mesoamerican Ball Games

Dramatic piece of pedregal (volcanic stone) 
showing curving flows of lava.

And more than one fountain. 
The staircase is from Frida's day room. 
The studio juts out to the left.

This property first belonged to Frida Kahlo's parents. Frida's father was a well-known portrait-photographer of Jewish-Hungarian descent; her mother's family was Spanish born in Mexico. Diego Rivera and Frida Kahlo lived in this house from 1929 to 1954, during which time they imprinted it with their artistic and aesthetic sensibilities.

They also left remnants of their passionate love-hate for each other—captured in this short poem.

"El diablo es rubio

Y en sus azules ojos

Dos estrellitas encendió el amor,

Con su corbata y sus calzones rojos,

El diablo me parece encantador."

Frida Kahlo

"The devil is blonde

And in his blue eyes

Two little stars, inflamed love,

With his red tie and underwear

The devil seems like a charmer."

Frida Kahlo

Frida's Early Life

Born July 7, 1907, Frida died July 13, 1954, at the age of 47. She died where she was born, in the Casa Azul, Coyoacán, Mexico. In 1913, at the age of six, she contracted poliomyelitis, which shriveled her right leg. 

In 1922, Frida was one of the first girls admitted to the National Preparatory (High) School (Escuela Nacional Preparatoria) of Mexico City—the most prestigious educational institution in Mexico. While there, her pranks propelled her to leader of a group of young rebels dedicated to playing pranks on their teachers.

While was attending Prepa (High School), she came into contact for the first time with her future husband, the well-known Mexican muralist Diego Rivera, who had been commissioned to paint a mural in the school's auditorium.

In 1925, she learned engraving techniques from Fernando Fernández Domínguez. However, in the same year, physical disaster struck again—this time it was a trolley car accident. Her spine, numerous ribs, and her neck were broken. Her pelvis was shattered. Her right foot and her shoulder were dislocated. The final insult was a railing that penetrated her abdomen from the left side. 

Frida underwent multiple surgeries, submission to numerous apparatuses designed to stretch her muscles, and wearing special corsets. Over her lifetime, Frida would endure 32 surgeries. Her life was marked by disability, accompanied by chronic physical pain. 

The need to remain supine during her lengthy convalescence brought on profound boredom that Frida relieved by beginning to paint. In 1926, still in her convalescence, she painted a self portrait that turned out to be the first in a long series in which she expressed the events of her life and her emotional reaction to them.

“Pinto auto retratos

porque estoy mucho tiempo sola”.

Frida Kahlo

"I paint self portraits

because I am alone much of the time."

Frida Kahlo

Painting Her Life of Pain

She painted the majority of her paintings stretched out in her bed or in her bathtub.  Her successful recuperation, including the ability to walk again, was made possible only because of  her tremendous energy and indomitable will to live, which might have crippled—if not killed—a lesser spirit.

Following her recuperation, a good friend introduced her to the Mexico City art scene, where Frida came into contact with numerous artists and photographers, including the muralist Diego Rivera.

In 1938, the poet and essayist André Bretón wrote the introduction for a showing of Frida's work at the Julien Levy gallery in New York City. In it, Bretón categorized Kahlo's work as 'surrealist'. In spite of the critical judgment of the famous Frenchman, Kahlo wrote much later, "He believed that my work was 'surrealist', but it wasn't. Never once did I paint my dreams or nightmares. I painted my own reality." ("Creían que yo era surrealista, pero no lo era. Nunca pinté mis sueños ni mis pesadillas. Pinté mi propia realidad.")

Viewing her paintings, who can doubt that reality as she experienced it was, in fact, 'surreal'?

Sin esperanza - Without hope

“El dolor no es parte de la vida, 

se puede convertir en la vida misma.”

Frida Kahlo

"Pain is not part of life,

one can convert it into life itself."

Frida Kahlo

El Árbol de la Esperanza - Tree of Hope

Frida Kahlo and Diego Rivera

Frida Kahlo and Diego Rivera were married in 1929. Diego was enormous, obese, whereas Frida was small, delicate, which led their friends to comment their marriage was the union of elephant and dove.

Frida and Diego—
The Elephant and the Dove

The relationship of Frida and Diego was a passionate mix of love, liaisons with others (Frida was bi-sexual), creative synergies, and hate, which culminated in divorce in 1939. Divorce, however, did not end their stormy relationship.  On December 8, 1940, they quietly remarried in San Francisco, California.

Before we moved to Mexico, Reed and I visited San Miguel de Allende as a potential home. While there, we went to an exhibit of Frida Kahlo's writings to Diego Rivera. Nothing I am capable of writing could possibly communicate the depth and passion of this complicated, powerful, love-hate relationship.

Of passionate love...

“Te quiero...gracias por que vives, 

porque ayer me dejaste tocar tu luz más íntima 

y porque dijiste con tu voz y tus ojos 

lo que yo esperaba toda mi vida.”

Frida Kahlo

"I love you...thankful for why you live,

because yesterday you carried me to touch your most intimate light

and because you spoke with your voice and your eyes

what I have wanted all my life."

Frida Kahlo

Of equally passionate hate...

Yo sufrí dos accidentes graves en mi vida, 

uno en el que un autobús me tumbó al suelo…

el otro accidente es Diego. 

De los dos, Diego es el peor."

Frida Kahlo

"I suffered two grave accidents in my life,

one was the trolley that slammed me to the ground...

the other accident is Diego.

Of the two, Diego is the worst."

Frida Kahlo

Life at Casa Azul

Personal Rooms

The personal rooms at Casa Azul permit us a glimpse into the personal lives of this larger-than-life couple. A long, gradual stone ramp provided Frida easy access to these rooms, which are one flight above ground level. A series of living rooms now house a representative collection of Frida's work and of Diego's as well.

Visitors enter the personal rooms through the comedor (dining room).

High ceilings, a skylight and generous windows 
create a welcoming, friendly space 
where Diego and Frida entertained such guests as
 the Chilean poet Pablo Neruda and David Rockefeller.

The comedor gives entrance to a stone stairwell which, in turn, leads to the doorway of the colorful kitchen.  Sun shining through generous high windows make this a bright, airy space. I love this kitchen.

Some cooking pots shown here are heirlooms;
they are no longer made.

The stove is traditional, wood-burning. 

Firewood burns in long 'shafts' 
set among the yellow tiles. 
Notice the metates for grinding corn
peeking out from under the cook stove. 

Diego Rivera's bedroom is at one side of the dining room.

Diego's bedroom is small, 
but with high ceilings and a large window

Dresser, 
with Diego's death mask in miniature

Frida's and Diego's Studio

Climbing some stairs leads to Frida's and Diego's sunlit studio.

Paints and brushes on Frida's desk.

Frida's wheelchair 
parked in front of her easel.

In the next room is Frida's bed. There is a mirror straight above the bed. Frida's mother had it installed during Frida's lengthy convalescence following the trolley car accident. Seeing herself reflected in the mirror made it possible for Frida to paint her first self portrait. 

Frida's bed

At the foot of the bed hangs Frida's gallery of heroes: 
Stalin, Unknown, Lenin, Marx, Mao.  
Like many other artists and intellectuals of the time, 
she and Diego were members of the Mexican Communist Party.

Sculpture of nude woman on Frida's dresser. 

Frida Kahlo is widely acknowledged as the first female artist to paint without inhibition about the female experience. We have visited the Frida Kahlo Museum many times. Our visitors always want to see it. Each time we have been struck by the youthfulness of the majority of visitors. Visitors of 'a certain age' make up a distinct minority. 

A Conflicted Life Goes On...

Despite Diego's affairs with other women, including Frida's own sister, the muralist helped Frida in many ways. It was Diego who suggested that she wear traditionally-inspired, colorful Mexican dress and exotic jewelry.

 When Frida wore traditional dress,
it took on added drama.

Combined with her unusual eyebrows, this dress style created Frida's inimitable image—recognized around the world even today.

Frida—elegant in a stylized traditional dress
—showcasing a pre-Columbian sculpture.

Beautiful example of Frida's style,
based on traditonal Oaxacan dress.

...held together always 
by the ever-present corset.

Diego loved Frida's paintings. He was her most devoted fan. For her part, Frida was the primary critic of Diego's work. In response to Diego's growing reputation in the United States, he and Frida lived in the U.S. from 1931 to 1934, principally in New York City and Detroit.

While in New York, Frida spontaneously aborted their child, which devastated her. Owing to her many injuries, Frida was unable to bear a child—a tragic reality that Frida was able to accept only after many years of deep emotional pain. As always, she dealt with the pain by painting it. These paintings are excruciating for their stark, brutal honesty, painful to view.

The political dissident León Trotsky, exiled by Stalin from Russia, was granted asylum in Mexico,  with the support of Rivera. Trotsky and his wife lived with Frida and Diego from 1937 to 1939. Actually, the Kahlo property is large, and the Trotskys lived in a small house at the opposite end of the garden from Frida's and Diego's house.

León Trotsky and his wife were guests in this small house

During this time, Frida had an affair with Trotsky. Subsequently, he moved to a near-by house. One might reasonably speculate that the affair with Trotsky was a contributing factor leading to Diego's and Frida's 1939 divorce.

Trotsky was assassinated in August 1940, by a supposed member of Stalin's secret police. Frida was accused of instigating the attack. Fortunately, at the last moment, the authorities relented, and neither she nor Diego were arrested. (Actually, the artist, David Alfaro Siqueiros, an anti-Trotsky communist, was the first to attempt to assassinate Trotsky, in May 1940. See: David Siqueiros: Twentieth Century Odysseus for the full, dramatic story.)

Frida's Final Years and Death

In the spring of 1953, the Galería de Arte Contemporáneo of Mexico City organized an important exhibit of Kahlo's work. It was the only exhibit mounted in Mexico during Frida's lifetime.

Unfortunately, Frida's health was very bad, and her doctors prohibited her from getting out of bed to attend the exhibit. In typical fashion, Frida devised a unique solution to the challenge. Minutes after guests were admitted to the gallery, sirens were heard in the distance. Arriving at the gallery in an ambulance with a police escort, sirens blaring, Frida was lifted from the stretcher onto a bed brought on a flatbed truck.

Then four strong men carried Frida on her bed into the gallery, where she held forth during the entire afternoon exhibition as the artist-diva she truly was. Her many fans gathered round to greet her. Frida made jokes, sang and drank tequila, just as she had always done. It goes without saying that the exhibit was a resounding success!

Later that year, it became necessary to amputate her right foot below the knee due to gangrene. At first, she showed resilience:

Below her amputated foot, Frida wrote, "Pies, para que los quiero si tengo alas para volar” ("Feet,  what do I want them for, if I have wings to fly"). 
On the right is a hatchling; breaking free of the egg, wings  outstretched, ready to fly.

Similarly, she wrote,

“Intenté ahogar mis dolores, 

pero ellos aprendieron a nadar”.

Frida Kahlo

"I tried to drown my pains, 

but they learned how to swim."
Frida Kahlo

The amputation was the final physical assault. Robbed of all mobility, a major depression descended upon Frida. Unable to do much of anything during this time, she wrote poems in her diary. Most of them dealt with  her pain and regrets. Here's her last entry:

“Espero alegre la salida 

y espero no volver jamás”.

Frida Kahlo

"I cheerfully await the exit

and I hope never to return."

Frida Kahlo 

When asked how she wanted her body buried after her death, she replied emphatically, "Not burial!  I've laid down long enough!" 

Frida Kahlo's Death Mask...resting on her Day Bed.

Upon her death, Frida's body was cremated, and her ashes were placed in a pre-Columbian urn that now rests at the Casa Azul, where she was born.

Still Curious?

Poking around the Internet, I came upon this excellent summary of Frida Kahlo's life.  At the end of the article is a UTube film (3:36 second) with rare live footage of Frida and Diego.

Set to Mexican music, the silent images are arresting.  Frida had a real dramatic flair, which is beautifully captured on the film.  Be patient, scroll down the text until you see the familiar UTube:
http://dejenmevivir.wordpress.com/2011/01/21/frida-kahlo-_-%E2%80%9Cyo-sufri-dos-accidentes-graves-en-mi-vida%E2%80%A6-el-otro-accidente-es-diego%E2%80%9D/

I also found this useful list of 'phrases' written by Frida Kahlo, also in Spanish:  http://listas.20minutos.es/lista/frases-de-frida-kahlo-294455/

For English-speakers, this tribute provides the introduction to a Frida Kahlo web site: http://www.fridakahlo.com/

Originally published in Jenny'a Journal of Mexican Culture.

The Frida Kahlo "Blue House" Museum is in Colonia Del Carmen, Coyoacán.

Dolores Olmedo Museum: 16th Century Hacienda Hosts Art of Diego Rivera and Frida Kahlo

Every once in awhile, a visit to a new museum just plain knocks our socks off! It happened to us recently. Similar to our experience at the Frida Kahlo Museum in Coyoacán, stepping through the gate took us into another world.

Beautifully Restored 16th Century Hacienda 

Driveway crosses the gardens to the house

In 1962 the Mexican philanthropist, art collector and businesswoman, Dolores Olmedo, bought the rundown, sixteenth century, 8-acre property in Xochimilco known as Hacienda La Noria. She immediately set out to restore its buildings and gardens—an undertaking uniquely suited to Dolores' capabilities as businesswoman, art connoiseur and collector.

House from across the gardens

Upon her death in 2002, the estate of Dolores Olmedo was dedicated to making her collections available to the public:

• Precolumbian art (600 pieces certified by the National Institute of Anthropology and History), 
• Frida Kahlo paintings (25), 
• Diego Rivera works (45), 
• Popular art and 
• Library (4,000 volumes). 

Approaching Chapel and Museum

Plants, Peacocks and Puppies

The gardens feature more than twenty-five varieties of Mexican plants and trees. Ducks and geese roam large, attractive pens landscaped with plants and ponds.

Blue agave
Agave tequilana
from whose juice tequila is made

A flock of splendid peacocks parade through the gardens. When a male displays, onlookers gasp with excitement and delight.

In a large, comfortable pen, about a dozen of the once nearly extinct breed of dogs, xoloitzuintles (sho-loy-tzu-EEN-tles),  Mexican hairless hunting dogs, make their home. They move across well-worn paths. When they catch sight of something, they stand stock still...at attention.

Xoloitzuintles
Mexican Hairless Dog

A bronze statue of one proud male adorns their pen. Until one of the actual dogs moved, I thought they were all statues. I doubt I'm the only one who has made this mistake! Their color is similar to the bronze statue, and when they stand still...not a magnificent muscle moves. Remarkable!

More Xoloitzuintles

Sunday Folk Music Concerts

The Museum also sponsors cultural events, including Sunday afternoon concerts held outside. We heard an excellent band of young people playing Mexican music. In addition to marimba and mandolin, the band also had four psalteries—a stringed instrument held on the lap. The psalteries gave the music a sound that we in the U.S. might describe as 'mountain' music. The result was absolutely delightful! The audience sang along with many songs.

Psaltery

Dolores Olmedo (1908-2002): A Woman Ahead of Her Times

Born two years before the onset of the Mexican Revolution (1910-1917), Dolores Olmedo was a real personaje (character)—businesswoman, philanthropist, art collector. Her mother, widowed by the untimely death of Dolores' father, supported her family as an elementary school teacher. Like many others, the family suffered through food shortages as the Revolution ground on and on—an experience that undoubtedly marked Dolores for life.

After the Revolution, the arts in Mexico enjoyed a renaissance with a distinctly foreign flavor  reflective of new ideas arriving from the United States and the capitals of Europe. These foreign influences also had a profound effect on Mexico's cultural and scientific mentality, giving rise to a new generation espousing new values focused on social injustice, strategies for building a society based on a nascent nationalism, and conceptualized in terms of progress and development.

Dolores studied art at the Academy of San Carlos—the same school that had been attended by the 'Big Three' of Mexican Muralists: Diego Rivera, José Clemente Orozco and David Alfaro Siqueiros. She also studied music at the National Conservatory.

Joining Mexico's Artistic Elite

About 1924, sixteen-year-old Dolores met Diego Rivera while he was working on his murals at the Secretariat of Public Education. It was primarily a friendship based on their shared artistic interests, but Rivera also asked Dolores' mother for permission to have Dolores pose for him. Permission granted, she posed more than a hundred times for the artist, whom she held in the highest esteem.

Portrait of Dolores Olmedo 
(Oil on canvas)
Diego Rivera (1955)
Collection, Museo Dolores Olmedo

Source:  http://www.diegorivera.com/gallery/dolores.html

As with most of Rivera's friendships, theirs was to have its highs and lows. At one point, Dolores distanced herself from Rivera for several years, but in 1955 she and Rivera renewed their ties and were practically inseparable until his death two years later. Aware that he would soon die, during this time the great muralist named Dolores trustee of his estate. 

During this time, Rivera, himself a renowned collector of precolombian art, guided Dolores through several important acquisitions. Her collection of 600 objects is on exhibition at the Dolores Olmedo Museum in Xochimilco. Rivera also guided Dolores in the purchase of several paintings both by Frida Kahlo and by himself. These paintings are important exhibits at her museum.

Meanwhile, in 1930 Dolores had met the Englishman Howard S. Phillips, founder and editor of Mexican Life, a magazine focused on the arts and  tourism. They were married in 1935. Although they eventually divorced amicably, during their marriage Howard and Dolores moved in Mexico's elite circles of the arts and culture.

Business Woman

In order to support her family, Dolores turned her talents to the business world. Her business instincts were superb. She identified and turned to her advantage the construction boom that accompanied the country's post-Revolution development agenda.

With great difficulty, she borrowed money to purchase a brick factory. In a canny move, she formed a partnership with the owner of the brick factory next-door to hers, the German Heriberto Pagelson. Together they purchased additional brick factories, which became enormously profitable.

Similarly, Dolores allied with an adobe maker, again capitalizing on the country's construction boom. Needless to say, her success was extraordinary at a time when few Mexican women participated in entrepreneurial activity, let alone achieve such success in the male-dominated construction industry!

Still Curious?

The Museum's web site is excellent, including a description in English.  For the best photos, go to the Spanish site where, below the GoogleMap, is a series of photos. Click to access, then Scroll Down one row—voilá!—superb photos of the Museum grounds. Here's the link:  Dolores Olmedo Museum.

Excellent description in English with link to Spanish: http://www.myhero.com/go/hero.asp?hero=Dolores_Olmedo_Patino

Link to Wikipedia entry (Spanish):  http://es.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dolores_Olmedo

Originally published in Jenny'a Journal of Mexican Culture.

The Dolores Olmedo Museum
(green/yellow star)
is located in Colonia Huichapan, Delegación Xochimilco
in southeastern Mexico City.
It is near the La Noria light rail station.