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Frida Kahlo

Boston museum acquires landmark Frida Kahlo painting

Tom Hoepf
Tom Hoepf
‘Dos Mujeres (Salvadora y Herminia)’ was the first painting ever sold by Frida Kahlo (1907–1954). © 2016 Banco de México Diego Rivera Frida Kahlo Museums Trust, Mexico, D.F. / Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York.
‘Dos Mujeres (Salvadora y Herminia)’ was the first painting ever sold by Frida Kahlo (1907–1954). © 2016 Banco de México Diego Rivera Frida Kahlo Museums Trust, Mexico, D.F. / Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York.

 

BOSTON (AP) – Boston’s Museum of Fine Arts has become the only New England museum to add a Frida Kahlo painting to its permanent collection.

The Boston Globe reports that Dos Mujeres (Salvadora y Herminia), is a rare, early portrait by the renowned Mexican painter.

MFA director Matthew Teitelbaum says the work furthers the museum’s goal of “representing artistic voices from across the Americas.”

The portrait was painted in 1928 and depicts two maids who worked for Kahlo’s mother in front of a verdant backdrop. Teitelbaum calls the work “strong, beautiful and iconic.”

American industrialist Jackson Cole Phillips purchased the painting directly from Kahlo in July 1929. Acquired by the MFA in December, it is the first work by the artist to enter the museum’s collection.

The MFA estimates there are only 12 paintings by Kahlo in U.S. museums today.

The work is on view through March 1 in a special presentation in the Carol Vance Wall Rotunda. After conservation treatment, it will be re-installed in the Art of the Americas Wing later this year.

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