Museo Estudio Diego Rivera

The full name of this place is Museo Casa Estudio Diego Rivera y Frida Kahlo, a mouthful really. This was Diego Rivera's studio/home that he shared with his wife Frida Kahlo. It is located in the San Angel area in Mexico City and admission is free. If you want to take photographs, it was only $30 pesos at the time I went which was in October 2011. It was designed and built by the famous architect Juan O'Gorman. There are two houses, one for Diego and the other for Frida, surrounded by a cactus hedge. The architect connected the houses by a rooftop bridge which Frida would use to bring Diego his meals.

The entrance

Inside of Rivera's studio space. 



A portrait of Dolores del Río painted by Rivera. She was a famous Mexican film actress.

Diego Rivera's clothes



Random stuff I shot.

Next to the studio was Rivera's bedroom. They had a pair of his pajamas laid out on the bed.

Some of his personal items on the nightstand.

A wedding couple made of papier-mâché.

Upstairs, you could look down on the studio space.

Diego's hat

Along the way going over to Frida's side, I saw a table with papier-mâché skeletons laid out on it. They give workshops to kiddos. Here was one of them. They hadn't been painted yet.

Her side was smaller and kind of boring, which was disappointing. They did have her very small kitchen displayed.

Close-up of the yellow skeleton man.

They had photographs displayed throughout both houses. Some of them are permanent and some they rotate out.

This is the outside of the place. The pink building is Rivera's side. The blue is Frida's.

This was my Polaroid attempt with that wretched PUSH! film that I have come to despise. I thought there was enough light but apparently not. It has turned a horrible blue shade by now too. To keep it from going blue, you have to make an emulsion lift out of it but I don't want to do that. I want to keep the Polaroid in its original state because part of my series is displaying the actual Polaroids with the others I shot. Call me stubborn, but they will remain intact regardless of what they look like.

I have three more shots of this film and am not quite sure what I want to do with them. I have less than a month in Mexico too. I will be returning back to the states in late December. I am ready to come home. I've enjoyed my stay here and have learned so many things, mainly with myself. Lots of time to do some self-reflecting and to figure out my priorities.

Next blog: Plaza de las Tres Culturas