Episode 4: Comparative analysis of two retrospectives Nari Ward vs Frida Kahlo

An episode of the I ART New York podcast, hosted by Izabela Gola, Rebecca Major, titled "Episode 4: Comparative analysis of two retrospectives Nari Ward vs Frida Kahlo" was published on May 14, 2019 and runs 61 minutes.

May 14, 2019 ·61m · I ART New York

0:00 / 0:00

Summary

Comparative analysis of two big exhibits: Frida Kahlo: Appearances Can Be Deceiving at The Brooklyn Museum, displaying her artwork alongside personal possessions, which had been stored in the Casa Azul, (translated as the "Blue House") her longtime Mexico City home; and Nari Ward: We The People at The New Musuem, which features over thirty sculptures, paintings, videos, and large-scale installations from throughout Ward’s twenty-five-year career, highlighting his status as one of the most important and influential sculptors working today. Frida Kahlo: Appearances Can Be Deceiving at The Brooklyn MuseumOn view through May 12Curated by Circe Henestrosa this is the first exhibition in the United States to display a collection of Kahlo’s clothing and other personal possessions. They are displayed alongside paintings, drawings, photographs, related historical films and ephemera, as well as works from the Brooklyn museum’s holdings of Mesoamerican art. The examples of Kahlo’s personal artifacts in the exhibit, which had been stored in the Casa Azul, (translated as the "Blue House") her longtime Mexico City home, are intended to shed a new light on her crafted personal and public appearance and identity, which reflect her cultural heritage and political beliefs, while also addressing her physical disabilities. Friday Kahlo was born in Coyoacán, a suburb south of Mexico City in 1907. Her work intertwines narratives of Mexican folk customs and Roman Catholic iconography to create works that are defined through her heritage, ethnicity, disability, and her political views. Her work is exemplified by uncompromising honesty, searching through the self-portraiture self-scrutiny and self-reflection. Kahlo was an activist during the Mexican revolutions of the early 1920s. Ministry of Education launched Mexican Muralist Movement and in 1922 Kahlo enrolled in National preparatory School where Diego Rivera was working on his first commission. She joined a Communist party as teenager in 1925 where, along with her husband Rivera, lead the Union of Mexican Technical Workers, Painters, and Sculptors. Like other artists within Mexico during the era, Kahlo infused her work with “Mexicanidad,” an identification with Mexico’s distinct national history, traditions, culture, and natural environment, but she did so in a much more personal way. Nari Ward: We The People at The New Musuem On view through May 26 Curated by Gary Carrion-Murayari, Kraus Family Curator; Massimiliano Gioni, Edlis Neeson Artistic Director and Helga Chrisoffersen, the exhibit features over thirty sculptures, paintings, videos, and large-scale installations from throughout Ward’s twenty-five-year career, highlighting his status as one of the most important and influential sculptors working today. Ward relies on research into specific histories and sites to uncover connections among geographically and culturally disparate communities and to explore the tension between tradition and transformation. Nari Ward was born in 1963, in St. Andrew, Jamaica and is known for his sculptural installations composed of discarded material found and collected in his neighborhood. Since the early 1990s, Ward has produced his works by accumulating staggering amounts of humble materials and repurposing them in consistently surprising ways. He has repurposed objects such as baby strollers, shopping carts, bottles, doors, television sets, cash registers and shoelaces, among other materials. Ward re-contextualizes these found objects in thought-provoking juxtapositions that create complex, metaphorical meanings to confront social and political issues surrounding race, poverty, and consumer culture.