Frida Kahlo and Diego Rivera Museums

My last week of holiday before school was spent in DF and so I had the chance to visit the two museums I have been keen to see for a long time; the Frida Kahlo and the Diego Rivera...


The Blue House
This is where Frida Kahlo was born and where she lived periodically with Diego Rivera. The house is in beautiful Coyoacan, is ovbviously blue and has works by Frida, Diego and other artists, plus letters they sent eachother, a great big pile of Communist literature and a mini pyramid in the garden.
After seeing the inside of the house (taking photos unfortunately prohibited) I practiced my Spanish watching the video at the museum: From what I can gather Kahlo, in many ways had a very unhappy life, with a husband who had various affairs (including one with her sister) and spent a lot of time in hospital (due to polio at the 6 and a bus accident in 1925). She was also childless and suffered many miscarriages which she often references in her paintings.
Although, on the other hand I'm not entirely sure life for Frida was ALL the doom and gloom she made out. I think she was an outgoing, confident human being, always favouring the more tradditional Mexican dress and painting herself with prominent Mexican features (thick eyebrows and yes, a bit of a tash). She also managed to have her own affair with Leon Trotsky while he was exiled in Mexico DF...

...However in the painting below she does liken herself to a wounded animal.

It was particularly fun visiting the museum with my dramatic friend Vanessa who wandered around the house comparing herself to Kahlo at every oppourtunity.

Below is a photo V took of me outside the house:

Either way it was a great day and fascinating to visit the wacky house of this wacky but talented artist with my extremely wacky friend.

Anahuacalli

Rivera designed Anahuacalli as a place to display his Pre-Columbian artefacts. It is made out of dark Volcanic stone and is reminiscent of a Maya tomb, inside being cool and dark. In all honesty I was expecting this place to be rather dull, being a bit of a pleb when it comes to ancient history but with the (free [of course]) tour guide I found it pretty interesting especially thinking how old many of the items in the museum are.

Diego's collection is huge, and includes models of warriors...

...childrens' dolls made from the historic version of playdough...
...and what may look like a jug but, when filled with certain levels of water, wacked and blown into correctly is in fact a musical instrument:
I also liked some Diego's personal touches especially his snake and Communist (what else?) themed ceilings:

And the random frogs/toads on the ground floor:
From the terraza there are views of the surrounding city and volcanoes in the distance although I am sure they were easier to see when Dego built his museum and Mexico City was not one of the most polluted places in the world (got to love that filthy sky)!

Outside of the museum there was also an alebrije; a paper maiche cross between a monster and an animal. These are a very common and tradditional type of art in Mexico and come in all forms and sizes (although this one was a biggy). Having mocked other tourists for taking photos of themselves "fighting" the monster, Zoe and I later did the very same:

Overall it was a great week and one which makes me very grateful to live in such an interesting city with so much to do and such interesting inhabitants.

2009 and Kings

Ok so after way too long a gap I will now be tryng to update my blog for January before February comes along with even more to add.

New Year in Acapulco
As mentioned in my previous blog I spent New Year in Acapulco at the beach as I was very kindly invited by my roomate. Acapulco is a lot of fun and a very popular tourist destination, being one of the nearest beaches from Mexico City. It was therefore packed with "Chilangos" (Mexico D.F dwellers) for the complete NY period making it a great place for parties but not for virgin beaches and stunning scenery. Either way a good time was had by all and the hangovers were probably not as bad as we deserved although the us joruney back could have been shorter...



6th January - Piñatas and the Arrival of The Kings

The arrival of the 3 Kings is yet another important festival in Mexico. Although many poor Mexicans do still have to go to work, the day does not pass by unnoticed. Fortunately for Zoe and I, IH was still on holiday and so we took ourselves off to the Mueso de Arte Popular (as mentioned in a previous blog) to see their Piñata exhibition (what else?).
[In the picture below I am just in front of a random Paper Mache peacock which has very little to do with the exhibtion, I just liked the bird.] ANYWAY... Piñatas are extremely popular at Meixcan parties and are traddtionally star shaped with 7 points to represent the 7 Deadly Sins. You then bash them about untill gifts (usually sweets and little toys) fall out. This is done blindfolded in turns and is actually a lot of fun as I have been lucky enough to experiance first hand. The exhibition however had a range of beautiful and unique piñatas. My favourites probably being the Kings (above) and this little guy below: After the museum I then had to buy la Rosca for the party Vanesa and I organised for Dia de los Reyes Magos. This party essentially involves gathering friends and eating Rosca (a sweet bread; above) with hot chocolate.
The only tricky part is cutting the Rosca as baked inside are small dolls (2 in our case) and whoever touches them with the knife is doomed to make tamales for all the people at the party on 2nd February.
The dolls are believed to represent the "hiding" of Jesus to protect him from Herodes, however I still don't know the significance of 2nd February although I'm sure I shall within the next fortnight...
Fortunately I was spared from the making tamales but look forward to trying Zoe and Pat's efforts shortly. Hahahahaha...