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07/09/2007: "Portrait of Lupe Marin - Diego Rivera's Other Wife" by Ron Butler
The largest exhibit of Frida Kahlo works ever mounted is currently on display at the famed Bellas Artes http://www.bellasartes.gob.mx/INBA/index.jsp (the Palace of Fine Arts) in Mexico City, commemorating the artist's 100th birthday. She was born on June 6, 1907. The show will run until Aug. 19. Frequently overlooked in the luster that surrounds perhaps the worlds's best-known and highest-priced female artist is River's second wife, the feisty, tempestuous Lupe Marin.
Examining Diego Rivera's work, one is always impressed with the artist's eye for beautiful women, both as subjects for his paintings and for his amorous pursuits -- Dolores Del Rio, Paulette Goddard, Maria Filex, But none compared to Lupe. .
In the words of Bertram Wolfe, Rivera's biographer: "Long of limb and tall of body, as graceful and as supple as a sapling; hair black, wild unkempt, curly; dark olive skin, light sea-green eyes, high forehead and nose of a Phidian statue; full lips ever parted by eager breath and by lively, disorderly and scandalous chatter; a body so slender as to suggest a youth rather than a woman -- such was Lupe when Diego met her."
She also caught the eye (and the lens) of Edward Weston who described her as "tall, proud of bearing, almost haughty; her walk was like a panther's, her complexion almost green, with eyes to match -- gray-green, dark circled, eyes and skin such as I have never seen ."
Guadalupe Marin was from Guadalajara, a city known for its beautiful women. Diego first met her when he hired her to model as the nude figure in his "Creation" mural at the National Preparatory School, one of his first major commissions. (Frida Kahlo who was to become his third wife was a student of 14 at the school at the time.)
He described his first meeting with her: "A strange creature of a marvelous countenance, almost six feet tall, appeared. She had black hair, but her hair seemed more like that belonging to a chestnut mare than to a woman. Her green eyes were so transparent that she seemed blind."
In a pattern that was to repeat itself often throughout Rivera's career, the model soon became his mistress.
Lupe appeared as the earth figure in Rivera's chapel mural at the Universidad Autonoma de Chapingo. He also painted numerous portraits of her during and after their marriage. In the Salma Hayek movie Frida she was played by fiery actress Valeria Golino.
They were married in the Church of San Miguel in Guadalajara in 1922. He was 35. Lupe was 20, an independent and strong-willed woman from the start. "Rivera may be a great painter," clucked the neighbor women, "but his wife carries her own basket in the market, like an Indian."
She was also tempestuous. River had little regard for his marriage vows and the high-strung, high-spirited Lupe wasn't about to let her philandering husband stray in peace. She caused scenes in public, tore up his drawings and once threatened to shoot off his right arm with his own gun so he could never paint again. Rivera had a life-long passion for pre-Columbian terra cotta figures and pottery and bought them by the kilo. One night when he was late for dinner and she suspected he was out carousing, Lupe smashed two of his favorite pieces and served them to him at dinner that night in his soup.
Not surprisingly, the marriage, though it produced two daughters, Ruth and Guadalupe, was short lived. It simply dissolved after Rivera went to Paris to study with some of the French masters. Because they had only been married in the church, the marriage wasn't legally binding at any rate. Lupe found someone else, while back in Mexico again Rivera discoved Frida Kahlo, or rather she discovered him.
When Diego and Frida decided to marry, Lupe (she and Diego remained friendly) helped with the wedding reception. At one point during the festivities she became annoyed at all the attention being paid to Frida. She went to the couch where Frida was sitting, raised the skirt of the startled young bride and said, "And for these crooked legs, he left me." (Childhood polio and a streetcar accident left Frida's legs impaired.) Then she stormed out of the house.
But in the months that followed, Lupe and Frida became good friends. Lupe, who was an excellent cook, taught Frida how to prepare meals that Diego favored. Ruth and Guadalupe, the daughters of Diego and Lupe, were frequent visitors to the couples' San Angel home, and Frida loved them as her own.
When Frida died in 1954, the first person the devastated Diego Rivera called with the sad news was Lupe Marin.
IMAGE CREDITS:
Credit: Weston, Edward. 1886-1958
[Portrait of Diego Rivera, seated, wearing hat, right hand holding cigarette],
black-and-white photograph,
1924, 9 1/2 x 7 cm.,
Repository Charlot Collection, Hamilton Library, University of Hawaii at Manoa
Frida Kahlo. Portrait of Lupe Marin. c.1930.
Oil on canvas. Private collection.
Diego Rivera. Portrait of Lupe Marin. / Retrato de Lupe Marin. 1938.
Oil on canvas. 171.3 x 122.3 cm. Museo de Arte Moderno. Mexico City, Mexico.
