Encore Episode: Frida and Diego's American Dream

The Object

Big news! Tickets are now available for the next edition of The Object LIVE! Our hour-long live taping of The Object podcast on October 30, with very special guest Chan Poling of The Suburbs and New Standards, quizzes, and storytelling. All about the 100th anniversary of The Great Gatsby, the joys of jazz and St. Paul, and maybe the proper occasion to wear an ascot. Which is quite possibly this show—it’s “Great Gatsby’s Ghost!” The day before Halloween—Thursday, October 30, at 7 p.m. at the Minneapolis Institute of Art. Tickets are FREE but limited. Reserve your seats now by going to the tickets page on the Mia website, or follow this link: https://new.artsmia.org/event/the-object-live-presented-by-ameriprise-financial

And now, today’s episode:

In the fall of 1930, Frida Kahlo and Diego Rivera travel to the United States for the first time, welcomed as celebrity artists, ambassadors of an ancient and powerful Latin American identity. But as the months turn to years, can Rivera’s vision of one united Pan-America—and his marriage—survive the pressures of politics, fame, temptation, cultural differences, and scandal?

You can see examples of Diego Rivera’s work, and that of other modernist Mexican artists, in the collection of the Minneapolis Institute of Art: https://collections.artsmia.org/search/Diego%20Rivera

You can see Rivera’s San Francisco mural “Pan American Unity,” discussed on the show, here: https://www.sfmoma.org/exhibition/pan-american-unity/

You can see photos of Frida and Diego taking San Francisco by storm here: https://www.kqed.org/news/11848986/inside-frida-kahlo-and-diego-riveras-life-in-san-francisco

You can see (and read) Kahlo’s heartfelt letter to Rivera from a San Francisco hospital (“Diego, mi amor”) in the collection of the Smithsonian: https://www.si.edu/object/frida-kahlo-letter-diego-rivera%3AAAADCD_item_739