There’s a breath-taking and wonderfully intimate video about the world famous painter Frida Kahlo and her husband the legendary Diego Rivera. And of course there’s a Hungarian connection that bonds together the legend and reality. This unique film is made by a Hungarian photographer and Olympic fencer: Nickolas Muray.
Frida Kahlo met Muray in 1931 and had a relationship with him looking for emotional shelter in light of her husband’s unfaithfulness. But who was the man who could ease the exceptional Mexican artist’s emotional pain?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wd-pbNfiPRA
Frida Kahlo from Nickolas Muray archive, taken at Pera Museum Exhibition in Istanbul
Music: Guadalupe Urbina y Los Callejeros — Frida Kalho
Muray was born as Miklós Mandl in Szeged in 1892. He later attended a graphic arts school in Budapest, where he studied lithography, photo-engraving, and photography. After earning an International Engraver’s Certificate, he took a course in colour photo-engraving in Berlin. In 1913 he sailed to New York where he soon became a respected photographer and started to work for Harper’s Bazaar. His images were published in Vogue and The New York Times too.
Muray had a great sporting career too; he competed for the United States at the 1928 and 1932 Summer Olympics in the sabre fencing events.
After divorcing his second wife the artist-sportsman met Frida Kahlo not long after she married Diego Rivera and started their 10-year affair. Muray wanted to marry Frida but she didn’t want another husband, just a lover. Their relationship was far too strong however, to allow them to just walk out of each other’s lives. Their friendship remained strong until Kahlo passed away.
Photos: nickolasmuray.com