The artist who is possibly the most famous painter in the world is receiving the immersion treatment in Toronto.
“Frida: Immersive Dream” will highlight the life and work of Mexican artist Frida Kahlo in an exhibition opening next March.
Svetlana Dvoretsky, co-founder of producer Lighthouse Immersive, said in an interview that Kahlo’s show is part of a trilogy imagined by Italian digital artist Massimiliano Siccardi when he began working with the company two years ago on his “Immersive Van Gogh” exhibition.
The Dutch painter Van Gogh is the first part; The Austrian artist Gustav Klimt, the subject of “Immersive Klimt: Revolution”, the second and now, Kahlo the third.
“Every artist represents a revolution,” said Dvoretsky.
Van Gogh pioneered the “impasto” technique, creating texture by placing paint in thick layers, in his work, while Klimt was part of an avant-garde cultural movement in Vienna.
As for Kahlo, she was a revolutionary and revolutionary artist, Dvoretsky said.
“He was intrigued by the communist party, the (Mexican) revolution, what Lenin and Marx were embracing at the time; she marched in parades with people who wanted to change the regime and so on.
“For me, she is an extraordinary woman.”
It is also popular when it comes to famous artists.
This same month, a self-portrait of Kahlo, “Diego y yo” or “Diego y yo”, which shows the artist with an image of her husband Diego Rivera on her forehead, sold for $ 34.9 million (US) at auction. from Sotheby’s, the most expensive work by a Latin American artist ever sold at auction.
Known for her bold, surreal paintings as well as her colorful personal style, including her unibrow, Kahlo received the Hollywood treatment in 2002 when Salma Hayek portrayed her in “Frida,” which won an Oscar for Best Make-up and Best Soundtrack. Original.
Kahlo and fellow artist Rivera were the subjects of a 2012 exhibition at the Art Gallery of Ontario that was subtitled “Passion, Politics and Painting” and focused not only on the couple’s art, but also on their mountain relationship. Russian and her political activism.
Although Rivera was the most famous artist during her life, Kahlo has been revered not only as a painter but as a feminist icon. And as with Van Gogh, part of the fascination has to do with the problems she suffered when she was alive.
In a 2012 story about the AGO show, the Star reviewer said that Kahlo’s personal genius was transforming “great personal pain: an accident at age 18 that led to lifelong surgeries; a spontaneous abortion and confirmation of infertility at 25; a marriage with Diego marked by mutual and repeated adultery, in a force that is both disturbing and healing. “
That accident, a bus-tram accident in 1925, left Kahlo seriously injured that caused her life-long problems, but it also marked the beginning of her art, as she began producing self-portraits while recovering. He also had part of his right leg amputated later in life due to gangrene and when he died of a pulmonary embolism in 1954, just a week after his 47th birthday, there was speculation of a drug overdose, either accidental or intentional.
“She was absolutely full of life, but her life was a very serious mix of pain and love,” Dvoretsky said. “And what she did as an artist, she was very open and honest about everything. She was not politically correct. She was out there. “
Dvoretsky estimates that part of Kahlo’s current fame has to do with the growing interest in extraordinary women in general.
“How difficult it would have been for her to be next to Diego, someone who was so extraordinarily famous … and she just started painting,” said Dvoretsky.
“It took a lot of courage to say, ‘Yes, I am an artist; yes, I have talent; yes, I am worthy; yes, I can do it ‘… I think it’s very inspiring. “
Some of Kahlo’s most famous paintings will be featured in “Immersive Dream,” such as “The Two Fridas,” “The Wounded Deer,” and “Diego and I,” along with photographs, drawings, and documentary excerpts about her.
As with “Immersive Van Gogh,” Kahlo’s show will feature animated screenings by Siccardi and a musical score by Luca Longobardi, though Lighthouse Immersive co-founder Corey Ross said Kahlo’s works will be presented “in a format. very different from the one (Siccardi) used in the Van Gogh and Klimt test. “
Lighthouse Immersive is a pioneer of this style of entertainment in Toronto, having opened “Immersive Van Gogh” in July 2020 in what used to be the Toronto Star printing plant at 1 Yonge St. That show, which has sold over four million entries here. , has since expanded to 19 American cities.
The company’s five-story Toronto space now houses four exhibits, including “Immersive Klimt: Revolution,” “Immersive Nutcracker: A Winter Miracle,” and the dance performance “Touch,” choreographed by Guillaume Côté.
Reference-www.thestar.com