The Detroit Institute of Arts will display works by Frida Kahlo and Salvador Dalí that are on loan from Feb. 7 through Sept. 27. They will be accompanied by photographic portraits of the two artists and located adjacent to Diego Rivera’s “Detroit Industry” murals.
“Self Portrait with Monkey,” 1938 by Kahlo (1907-1954) and “The Transparent Simulacrum of the Feigned Image,” 1938 by Dalí (1904-1989) are on loan from the Albright-Knox Art Gallery in Buffalo, N.Y. “Remorse, or Sphinx Embedded in the Sand,” 1931 by Dalí, is on loan from the Eli and Edythe Broad Art Museum at Michigan State University in East Lansing. The photographs are from the Gilbert B. and Lila Silverman collection in Detroit and the DIA’s permanent collection.
The paintings show the artists’ interest in unusual subject matter. Both artists were interested in self-analysis and drew on biographical and nonbiographical sources to construct and present their identities in their work.
Kahlo’s self-portrait shows her with a bone and shell necklace that symbolizes her devotion to her Mexican heritage and culture. Three photographs from the DIA’s permanent collection will be shown alongside it – a portrait of Kahlo by Nickolas Muray (1892-1965) and two images by Bernard G. Silberstein (1905-1999), including a photo of Kahlo painting “Self-Portrait as a Tehuana (Diego on My Mind)” with Diego Rivera, her husband and the painter of the “Detroit Industry” murals, standing behind her.
Dalí’s “Remorse, or Sphinx Embedded in the Sand” shows a woman looking across a barren landscape. “The Transparent Simulacrum of the Feigned Image” demonstrates the virtuosity of Dalí’s surrealist technique of double image and optical illusion. The paintings will be displayed with two photographs of Dalí.
The DIA is open 9 a.m.-4 p.m. Tuesdays-Thursdays, 9 a.m.-10 p.m. Fridays, and 10 a.m.-5 p.m. Saturdays and Sundays. General admission is free for Wayne, Oakland, and Macomb county residents and DIA members. For all others, admission is $14 for adults, $9 for seniors ages 62 and up, $8 for college students, and $6 for youth ages 6-17. The museum is home to more than 65,000 works from ancient times through the 21st century.
