8 December
Frida Kahlo and Diego Rivera remarried in a simple civil ceremony on 8 December 1940, after a first marriage in 1929, a divorce in 1939, and lots of troubles and troubled times meanwhile. The Mexican Revolution Civil War, and an infinite series of health issues for Frida marked their life and artistic production.
Both Mexicans and painters, both with a well recognizable style, both involved in the world of politics and members of the Mexican Communist Party, they met when Rivera was already a well known artist, and Frida had just started.
Diego Rivera’s impact on Mexican art is tremendous. Rivera remained a central force in the development of national art in Mexico throughout his life. Perhaps one of his greatest legacies, is his impact on America’s conception of public art.
But Frida felt not inferior: “of course he [Rivera] does well for a little boy, but it is I who am the big artist” – Frida Kahlo in interview with the Detroit News, 2 February 1933.
However, Kahlo’s reputation as an artist, drawing her main inspiration from Mexican folk culture, developed late in her life but it grew enormously posthumously.
One of Frida Kahlo’s final self-portraits, Diego y yo (1949), sold recently at auction for $31m ($34.9m with fees), setting a big new record price for Kahlo (her previous stood at $8m) and for any Latin American artist
