Courtesy of Pera Museum Left, Frida Kahlo’s “Self-Portrait as Tehuana or Diego in My Thoughts” (1943); right, Diego Rivera’s “Portrait of Natasha Gelman” (1943).
The sunny yellow walls of the Pera Museum are a welcome break from the gray Istanbul winter. But even brighter are the works of two greats currently occupying the museum’s galleries. “Frida Kahlo and Diego Rivera from the Gelman Collection,” showing through March 20, offers an opportunity to see the works of these celebrated Mexican artists side by side, for the first time in Turkey.
At the museum (Mesrutiyet Caddesi No. 65; 90-212-334-99-00; www.peramuzesi.org.tr), more than 40 works from the on-again, off-again husband and wife painters are on display, along with photographs of them at work and play. Visitors can also dip in and out of a 40-minute film in which people describe their encounters with Ms. Kahlo.
But the paintings are the stars of the show. They were collected by the Russian-born movie producer Jacques Gelman and his Czech wife, Natasha, and are a fascinating study of pairs: the collectors, the artists and the portraits.
Many of Ms. Kahlo’s most emotion-saturated works are self-portraits in which she depicts Mr. Rivera on her forehead and, apparently, on her mind. Meanwhile, his portrait of the blonde Mrs. Gelman, stretched out like a Hollywood starlet in front of luscious calla lillies, with spiky red fingernails and a low-cut gown, contrasts with the portrait, also painted in 1943, by Ms. Kahlo, in which Mrs. Gelman appears older, more somberly dressed, with tight curls and an unsmiling expression.
