A new immersive virtual tour by the Frida Kahlo Museum might be just the salve for travel lovers who miss visiting sites across the world. The museum occupies the famous Casa Azul (“Blue House”) in the Coyoacán borough of Mexico City. Kahlo was born in 1907 within the walls of the brilliantly colored home, the daughter of a Hungarian-German Jewish father and a mother from the region of Oaxaca. Kahlo died in the house as well, in 1954 at the young age of 47.
The museum (established in 1958), contains not only world-renowned art by Kahlo and her husband Diego Rivera, but it also holds material evidence of the two legendary lives. Virtual visitors begin their tour in the lush outdoor courtyard of the house. A stepped pyramid opposite the viewer resembles a Mayan pyramid, and pre-contact art is distributed throughout the museum. Inside, viewers can slowly stroll through galleries with brilliant yellow floors. On the walls hang works by Kahlo and Rivera, including Frida and the Caesarian Operation (1931) and Long Live Life (1954).
After the galleries, visitors enter living spaces preserved just as the couple left them. The dining room includes the folk art that Kahlo collected, while the kitchen eschewed gas stoves for traditional firewood. Surrounded by grand windows, a large studio gives insight into Kahlo's creative process.
Visitors will feel connected to the artistic luminaries and historical figures who visited Casa Azul. Through her shows in the late 1930s and throughout the 1940s, Kahlo became known internationally within Surrealism, a movement label which scholars say she rejected. She was also politically active; between 1937 and 1939, Kahlo and Rivera sheltered Leon Trotsky after his exile by Stalin. Both Kahlo and Rivera sympathized with Communists, and Kahlo was an avid supporter of the Mexican Communist Party and the Soviet Union.
The vibrancy of the house matches the rich and colorful history of its occupant. A polio survivor, an artist, a communist, a woman honoring her cultural heritage— there are many sides to Frida Kahlo to discover. Take the virtual tour of the Frida Kahlo Museum here.
Enjoy exploring the rooms of the Casa Azul in a free virtual tour provided by the Frida Kahlo Museum.
The virtual tour allows the visitor to navigate like Google Maps.
Much of the Frida Kahlo Museum is exactly how Frida and Diego Rivera left their home.
Watch “106 Recuerdos de Frida” or “106 Memories of Frida” by the Frida Kahlo Museum.
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h/t:[Open Culture]
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