La Casa Azul, the secrets of Frida Kahlo’s home.

Dear fellow art enthusiasts,

As Daniela Uslan, I’m thrilled to recommend “La Casa Azul: The Secrets of Frida Kahlo’s Home.” This captivating book offers an intimate glimpse into the iconic Blue House where Frida Kahlo lived and worked.

Some key facts:
• Published: 2020
• Author: Suzanne Barbezat
• Pages: 224
• Features: 150+ color photographs

The book explores:
• Kahlo’s art studio and personal spaces
• Her extensive collection of Mexican folk art
• The lush gardens that inspired her work

What sets this book apart is its focus on how Kahlo’s surroundings influenced her art and life. It’s a must-read for anyone interested in:
• Mexican art and culture
• 20th-century artists’ homes
• The intersection of art and personal space

For more on Frida Kahlo’s life and work, visit:
• Frida Kahlo Museum
• MoMA’s Frida Kahlo page

“La Casa Azul” offers a unique perspective on one of the most intriguing artists of the 20th century. I highly recommend adding it to your art book collection..

Frida Kahlo is one of the most celebrated Mexican artists. of the last century, an extremely talented painter known throughout the world. In her hometown there is a very special place dedicated to her memory: it is the Casa Azul, the home where the artist was born and spent most of her life, including the last years before her death. Today it has become a house museum, collecting some of the most beautiful works of art she created. Let’s explore the incredible history of the Casa Azul and its secrets.

Where Casa Azul is located.

Born in Mexico City, Frida Kahlo spent her entire life here: the house where she saw the light is located in the suburban neighborhood of Coyoacán, which at the time was still a rural area, far removed from the urban center. La Casa Azul, in particular, is located in the Colonia del Carmen area. Even in the early 1900s it was considered an intellectual and avant-garde area, housing some of the homes of great artists such as Salvador Novo and Dolores del Rio. La Frida Kahlo’s house is on the corner of Londres and Allende Street, and owes its name to the charming cobalt blue walls-that is why it is known as Casa Azul.

Casa Azul, the history of the mansion.

La little house with blue walls was built in 1904, on land belonging to the former Hacienda del Carmen, owned by the Carmelites in colonial times. At that time, the Coyoacán neighborhood-though belonging to Mexico City-was not yet part of the city’s urban expansion. During the 1920s, however, the area became popular with artists and intellectuals, thanks mainly to the founding of the Escuela de Pintura al Aire Libre (outdoor painting school). Frida Kahlo was born there in 1907: her parents, father Guillermo Kahlo Kaufmann and mother Matilde Calderón y González, had purchased it shortly before.

Frida spent her entire childhood there, punctuated by difficult moments. Suffering from spina bifida, she experienced the Mexican Revolution in 1913 (her mother was supplying Zapata’s army from windows) and a few years later, in 1918, she spent her convalescence there after contracting polio. At the age of 18, the young woman was involved in a dramatic accident between the bus she was riding in and a streetcar, remaining seriously injured. She was confined to bed for about two years with fractured legs and a cast on her torso, and during this time she began to paint to pass the time.

It was thus her room in the Casa Azul in see the birth of Frida’s genius., the place where the first throbs of her artistic fervor took place. A few years later, the painter met Diego Rivera and fell in love with him, inviting him to her home to see the paintings she had made. The man thus began to frequent the house, and in 1929 the two were married. Frida moved to an apartment on Paseo de la Reforma, but Diego continued to pay the family mortgage to maintain the Casa Azul. This remained, however, a important reference point for Kahlo, although she lived for several years between Mexico City and abroad.

During the time Frida was away from home, the home became the Leon Trotsky’s refuge and his wife Natalia Sedova, fleeing the Stalinist regime in Russia. The two left in 1939, and shortly thereafter the artist moved back into Casa Azul with her husband. It was the latter who ordered the construction of a new wing, where Frida’s studio and bedroom were built. The exterior also underwent a real revolution, from the original French style to the one we know today. After her father’s death in 1941 (her mother had already been gone for some years), Frida inherited the house and stayed there together with Diego.

She died there in 1954, at the age of just 47, and here took place her wake. Her husband Diego, a few years later, donated the Casa Azul to the nation and established a foundation for its preservation. Thus was born the Frida Kahlo House Museum, dedicated to her life and works. While it remained all but ignored for a few years, the artist not being highly regarded at the time, during the 1980s and 1990s it became halfway to many tourists. Today the museum is the most visited in Coyoacán and one of the most visited in Mexico City.

The House Museum of Frida Kahlo

The Casa Azul is built around a central courtyard and covers an impressive 800 square meters: arranged on two floors, it houses a large kitchen, a large dining area, several bedrooms, and the wing dedicated to Frida Kahlo, with her bedroom and studio. Very special are the original decorations, such as the atrium that features a natural stone mosaic or the more recent area, built by Diego Rivera, where the walls are adorned with sea shells and mirrors. The courtyard houses a stepped pyramid, a fountain and a large pool.

What to see at Casa Azul

Frida Kahlo’s house museum consists of. 10 rooms. The first, on the ground floor, contains some of the artist’s minor works: this was the room where she and her husband welcomed guests. The second and third rooms are devoted to Frida’s personal effects and some works by Diego Rivera. The fourth room contains contemporary paintings by artists such as. Paul Klee and José Maria Velasco, while the fifth houses large papier-mâché statues. The kitchen and dining room, on the other hand, represent the sixth and seventh rooms: they are in classic Mexican style, filled with earthenware pots, plates, glasses, and handcrafted utensils.

The eighth room is Diego’s bedroom, with its work clothes still hanging on a coat rack. There are numerous folk art objects and as many as 2,000 votive paintings from the colonial period. Upstairs, the last two rooms house Frida’s bedroom and study, still containing the original furniture. One corner displays the artist’s ashes in an urn., along with numerous personal items. The room also contains a plaster corset like the one she was forced to wear after the accident and the wheelchair she used to move around in during her convalescence.