Studio Diego Rivera and Frida Kahlo

Juan O'Gorman, Architect, designed for his friend Diego Maria de la Concepción Juan Nepomuceno Estanislao de la Rivera and Barrientos Acosta y Rodríguez (that is, for Diego Rivera), the studio for the Diego Rivera-Frida Kahlo couple.

These are twin houses, Diego's studio, brick red, and Frida's studio, blue. Similar to how their owners were, independent but united (through a bridge).

Located at the San Angel Inn, they were the place where the couple lived for 5 years when they returned from their 3-year stay in New York in 1934. She is 27 and the 48 years old.

These houses lived the separation of the "elephant and the dove", their divorce, their marriage for the second time but above all the creation of great works of both.

Diego lived in this house until his death (1957) Frida lived in La Casa Azul in Coyoacán from her divorce until her death in 1954.

Diego had handicrafts from all over the Republic, the monumental Judas, the reed skulls, sheet and wood toys, pre-Hispanic pieces, his restirador, paintings, easel, furniture, his shoes, his flannel pajamas and his tiny bedroom are still there as if Diego had used them yesterday.

Sadly the original furniture of Frida's studio is unknown, you can enter the studio and you will find temporary exhibitions there.

Depending on the time of year you visit this special museum, you can delight in addition to the daily life of these great masters, a birth of Metepec, the offering of the dead and different temporary events. I could see in a visit, the temporary exhibition of the sculptor Luis Ortiz Monasterio, the one who made the monument to the Mother or the well-known eagles embracing a woman of the IMSS.

In another visit, commemorating the 130th anniversary of the birth of the painter Nahui Olin (Carmen Mondragón) I witnessed a very interesting talk about the painter and her work as well as reading parts of her poems in the voice of those who have researched and written about her, the writers Adriana Malvido and Valeria Matos.

Imagine Frida sneaking out to visit Diego

by the bridge

Look at the beautiful wall of organs or cacti, as designed by O'Gorman and preserved to date. In fact there are no bars around the museum. If it is spring, it is painted purple by the jacarandas, I think the color combination is very nice.

A $$$$ dining option is right across the street at the San Angel Inn Restaurant in Altavista.

You can see Diego's bedroom, his bathroom, his shoes. Of Frida, there is the shell of the house with exhibition of photographs and others but in reality there are no personal objects that indicate her presence in the place.