Frida Kahlo. Fulang-Chang and I. 1937 (assembled after 1939)

Frida Kahlo Fulang-Chang and I 1937 (assembled after 1939)

  • MoMA, Floor 5, 517 The Alfred H. Barr, Jr. Galleries

Fulang-Chang and I depicts Kahlo with one of her pet monkeys, interpreted by many as surrogates for the children she and Diego Rivera were unable to conceive. The painting was included in the first major exhibition of her work, held at Julien Levy Gallery in New York in 1938. In the essay that accompanied the show, the Surrealist leader André Breton described Kahlo's work as "a ribbon around a bomb" and hailed her as a self-created Surrealist painter. Although she appreciated his enthusiasm for her work, Kahlo did not agree with his assessment: "They thought I was a Surrealist but I wasn’t. I never painted dreams. I painted my own reality." Kahlo later gave this painting to her close friend Mary Sklar, attaching a mirror to it so that, if Sklar chose, the two friends could be together.

Gallery label from 2009.
Additional text

When curators Leah Dickerman, Luis Pérez-Oramas, and I began to discuss our plans for creating a new gallery dedicated to Mexican Modernist art made in the 1930s and 1940s—which opened in May of this year—Frida Kahlo's Fulang-Chang and I was one of the works we were determined to include. View full post

Publication excerpt from Veronica Roberts, Curatorial Assistant, Department of Painting of Sculpture , A Close Look: Frida Kahlo's Fulang-Chang and I , Inside/Out: A MoMA/P.S.1 Blog . December 3, 2009 .
Medium
In two parts, oil on board (1937) with painted mirror frame (added after 1939); and mirror with painted mirror frame (after 1939)
Dimensions
Framed painting, left 22 1/4 x 17 3/8 x 1 3/4" (56.5 x 44.1 x 4.4 cm); framed mirror, right 25 1/4 x 19 x 1 3/4" (64.1 x 48.3 x 4.4 cm)
Credit
Mary Sklar Bequest
Object number
277.1987.a-b
Copyright
© 2021 Banco de México Diego Rivera Frida Kahlo Museums Trust, Mexico, D.F. / Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York
Department
Painting and Sculpture

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