The Blue House

La Casa Azul — The Blue House — was the place where Frida Kahlo came into this world, lived, and took her last breath, in 1954. She moved out, in 1929, just to marry fellow painter Diego Rivera, but she returned to the family home following their divorce ten years later. It’s when she painted some of her most famous paintings, including The Two Fridas and Self-Portrait with Thorn Necklace and Hummingbird.

When Frida and Diego reconciled and remarried, in 1940, right before Frida’s father death, they moved into La Casa Azul and filled it with color, folk art, and pre-Hispanic pieces to show their admiration for the peoples and cultures of Mexico. The building, which dates to 1904, was not a large-scale construction — today it has an 800 m2 building surrounded by property measuring 1200 m2. It underwent two major modifications. When Russian revolutionary Leon Trotsky lived with Diego and Frida in 1937, the property today occupied by the garden was purchased. In 1946 Diego Rivera asked Juan O’Gorman to build Frida’s studio. Following Diego’s wishes, the Casa Azul was turned into a museum in 1958, four years after Frida Kahlo died. The house in Coyoacán speaks of the daily life of Frida and Diego. The kitchen and dining room show signs of the pleasure they took in entertaining the luminaries who visited them.

The Casa Azul also reflects the couple’s love for folk art, such as the papier-mâché judas figures by Carmen Caballero and the sculptures by Mardonio Magaña. The ex-voto collection on the stairway is one of the most important in the country. Both painters also collected pieces of pre-Hispanic art. Many of these pieces decorate the interior and gardens, where Diego had a pyramid built to put his favorite pieces.

During this period of isolation, Google Arts & Culture have opened the doors to La Casa Azul for a virtual tour.

More on
www.museofridakahlo.org.mx