The Detroit Museum of Art, which narrowly escaped having treasures from its collections thrown on the auction block to help save the city from its financial crisis last year, is now enjoying a moment in the sun. The current exhibition, Diego Rivera and Frida Kahlo in Detroit, could not have come at a better moment. Timed exhibition tickets for this proclaimed blockbuster are selling out, and DIA has come up with a series of programs sure to fuel the feeding frenzy.

The centerpiece of the show is Detroit Industry, a series of murals by Rivera, commissioned by Ford Motor Company, and directly supervised by Edsel Ford. Between April 1932 and March 1933, Rivera spent time at Ford’s then-modern River Rouge plant, taking in the architecture, the industry and its workers, and made full-scale preparatory drawings, which are also on view. Against the backdrop of the Great Depression and a riot at the Rouge, in which 4 workers had been killed, Rivera served the industrial giant with dedication. 

Frida Kahlo, who met Rivera as an art student and married him two years prior to their stay in Detroit, was unhappy being there and felt estranged from her husband, who spent his time working and socializing with Detroit’s industrial grandees. It was during this period that she immersed herself in painting, and created works that began to establish her as an artist in her own right. 

Installation view of Diego and Frida in Detroit. Photo: Courtesy Detroit Institute of Art.

While the work of the charismatic Rivera, the second living artist to have been given a solo exhibition by the Museum of Modern Art in New York, in 1931, may seem anachronistic today, at the time it was revelatory. While championing the history of Mexico and its native cultures, he served its revolutionary heritage first, before bowing the might of American capitalism, via Ford. His murals for Detroit were something new in art for Americans. The success of the project paved the way for his ill-fated mural project for Rockefeller Center, begun in 1933. When the contract for that project was rescinded, he took a commission for a mural for what was then called The New Workers School, now The New School for Social Research. 

Diego Rivera, The Assembly of an Automobile (1932), a study for Detroit Industry. Photo: Courtesy Leeds Museum and Galleries.

While Frida Kahlo disliked, even disdained, the United States, she remained with her husband through the following year, continuing to paint during his long absences. By the time she had returned to her beloved Mexico, she had established painting as her métier, although it was not until 1937 that her work was recognized with an exhibition in Mexico. 

Frida Kahlo, Self-Portrait on the Borderline between Mexico and the United States (1932). Photo courtesy Detroit Institute of Art.

Not surprisingly, there are many more paintings in this show by Diego Rivera than by his wife. Among works by Frida Kahlo are a group of playful “exquisite corpse”-style drawings that show a side of her art that is rarely found amid the tortured depictions of her self-portraits. While the cult of Frida Kahol may have peaked, her interest in, and promotion of, Mexican folklore is undeniable and honored at DIA. 

Among the many public programs scheduled for the run of this show is the first-ever showing of films of Rivera’s mural production, created by Ford Motor Company's film production department. On Saturday, March 21, at 3 pm, there will be a showing of Detroit Industry and the Ford Motor Company Motion Picture Laboratory. Information/tickets.

Diego Rivera and Frida Kahol in Detroit continues through July 12. Detroit Institute of Art, Information/Tickets.

More about Frida and Diego in DART.

Frida Kahol: Her Photographs, in DART.

Left to right: Frida In a Suit by Guillermo Kahlo; Frida Kahlo Rivera, 1931 by Imogen Cunningham; Frida Kahlo in Manuel Alvarez Bravo's Studio, 1930s by Manuel Alvarez Bravo.