The Rediscovered Photographs story

This story begins in Moab.

Mimi (Muray) Levitt persuaded her brother Chris to go through the three suitcases that had been sitting out in the shed for five years. They were full of photos taken by their father, photographer Nickolas Muray. This task took days. Among all these photos, mostly of themselves as kids, were a couple of gems. There were about 70 negatives of famous Mexican Artists, including Miguel Covarrubias, Diego Rivera, and Frida Kahlo. Of these, about a dozen and a half were of Frida Kahlo, who was quickly gaining a following in this country.

Mimi asked photographer Bruce Proctor to make contact sheets of these so she could see what she had. I watched Bruce print up Frida and Diego from the fragile negs. I watched, and listened to his decisions as he burned and dodged with great tenderness and respect. The faces of Frida, Diego, and Nick; and the corners of the rooms of the "Blue House." I spotted those faces and corners with great care. I washed them, toned them, flattened, matted, and framed them.

Frida Painting the Two Fridas

I think this must be one of the Art Historian/psychologists' favorite pieces to analyze. Frida poses with her pallet and brush in front of a huge painting, one of her largest. She's wearing her 'hand' earrings, given to her by her surrealist friends. I think it was André Breton. (Nope. It was Pablo Picasso!) Historian Salomon Grimberg writes: "André Breton visited Mexico in 1938 intending to introduce his theories of surrealism and found the Mexicans were already surrealists, but didn't know it." In the painting she wears two costumes, as the two Fridas, divided yet sharing the same circulatory system. Her hearts exposed. In Victorian dress, with her heart wide open, she holds a medical tool. The pre-Diego Frida aspired to be a doctor. Frida initially wanted to go to medical school, but her bus accident changed her life course, dramatically. And her perspective, it seems: from pursuing an 'outside' understanding of the 'interior', to revealing an 'intimate' understanding of the 'exterior'. In Tehuana skirt, where she holds an emblem of Diego. Diego encouraged her to lose the 'boy' wardrobe and to don the native Tehuana costumes she enjoyed. Her heart is whole but, in this photo, not yet complete.

Frida and Diego with Hat

I spoke with Salt Laker Tina Martin, god-daughter of Frida. "Why was Frida so attracted to Diego? Why were any of the women? He must have had a great personality." Conversely, why was Diego attracted to Frida, to the point of marriage? He was, after all, a man with many beautiful lovers. There must have been something to Frida's persistence. Diego and Frida seem to be each other's opposites, in many ways. Especially physically. He was huge, she was petite. She dressed in costume meticulously, always aware of her physical condition. Meanwhile, Diego seemed not to notice what he looked like, he would get so consumed by a painting that he appeared, to Tina, to 'waste away' ( to the extent only he could). Frida would hug him and pat his big girth saying "Someone needs to take care of you." There he is seated, covering that chair, with Frida and her poor leg standing beside him.

Diego and Frida with Gas Mask

This photo, taken during W.W.II, reminds me that both Diego and Frida were revolutionaries themselves, and Communists fighting Capitalism and Hitler. Political events shaped not only their lives, but their identities. Frida changed her birth year to coincide with the date of the Mexican Revolution and, even in the days right before her death, she accompanied Diego to political rallies. The smile in this image forms an arrow pointing to the other mask, Frida's. There seems something so silly about Frida's pose with the gas-mask and Diego's grin. Knowing about Frida's sense of humor, it's hard to imaging she didn't even crack a smile. But in none, or nearly none, of her portraits does she smile. She gazes directly at the viewer with a seemingly expressionless face. Yet, in that face can be read anything.

Mimi, Bruce and I met Tina Martin at her home in Salt Lake City. Tina told us stories of visiting and being visited by Frida Kahlo. The picture Tina painted was of a vivacious woman, full of life and full of laughter. "We would know Frida was there, long before we could see her. We would hear her jewelry jangling, her skirts rustling, and we could smell her strong and flowery perfume." Out of Frida's pockets flowed gifts of toys and candy. The children loved her. She recalls Frida often in bed, and always an easel nearby. Frida would get the children to sneak her little drinks, directing them to hide the alcohol in the medicine cabinet. When Tina was three she was taken to the registry by her mom, Frida, and Frida's sister Cristina and became Ernestina (after her grandmother), Marta (the name her father wanted), Marlena (after the actress Marlena Dietrich. Frida's choice). The women laughing and happy the whole time, making jokes.Tina's description of Frida does not match the mask we face in her portraits but paints a very colorful, lively, and happy character.

In 1940, about their tenth year of marriage, Frida and Diego divorced. Although it was widely known that both engaged in extra-marital affairs possible explanations for the divorce include Diego's protection of Frida from reprisals resulting from his political actions; Diego's affair with Cristina; Frida's affair with Nickolas Muray; or sexual problems due to Frida's fragility. The divorce was quick, but lasted only a year. Frida and Diego remarried on his birthday, Dec. 8th, 1940, under conditions of independence which formalized her autonomy.

"Do you think she tried to shock people with her appearance and actions?" I asked Tina. "No." Frida was sincere in her words and actions. Diego, however, was the one who tried to shock. Especially in his commissioned murals, in which he often left shocking and disturbing surprises. Frida was in awe (and in the shadow) of Diego. For that reason she did not take her own painting too seriously, or see it as very important. But Frida's art is very important. Sarah Lowe describes it as having "...created a rupture in art history by overturning expectations of the portrayal of women in art." She did this by depicting her identity unfashionably and disturbingly.

Frida Painting 'Me and My Parrots' with Nickolas Muray

Tina's father, Alberto Misrachi, was Diego's first dealer. The gallery he started featured the emerging Mexican artists who, in their own time, were changing the atmosphere in the country.

Tina remembers being in a film with Frida, playing a small part as her daughter. They laughed the whole time. As a teenager Tina became interested in theater and moved to New York when she was 19. There she visited the close friends of her family, Nickolas and Peggy Muray. According to Martha Zamora, "One affair of great consequence to Frida was with Nickolas Muray, who made some of the most beautiful photographs of Frida." Nick met Frida during her second year of marriage to Diego, the Spring of 1931.

Nickolas Muray was born in Hungary and moved to Germany to avoid being recruited to the Emperor's army and to study photo-engraving. In 1913, he moved to New York with $25 dollars and a 'Master Engravers' card in his pocket. He was good at his craft, as his meticulous personality lent itself to the ultra-precision and care needed for the type of photography he did. As a portrait photographer, he quickly became well-known and liked among the celebrity crowds. Nick and Miguel Covarrubias (for whom Mimi was named) were introduced and "became friends, then roommates, soul mates, and inseparable partners in crime," Salomon Grimberg told me. "Each covered for the other when one would be off with a lover and was married. During [the] first trip to Mexico, Miguel introduced Nick to his Mexican friends...[who] nicknamed him 'the kid' because he was so much younger than anyone in the group."

How and why their affair ended, and who really broke it off, remains a mystery to me. What's apparent is that this was a serious affair for both of them and that they remained friends after. Throughout the duration of his affair with Frida Nick had been single. He had divorced his previous wife but still kept in close contact with wife number 2, Leja, and their daughter Arija who studied painting under Diego Rivera in Mexico. Diego Rivera often took (US) Americans as his apprentices. Sue Vogel, Salt Lake attorney and free-lance writer, told this story of one of them, Pablo O'Higgins.

Paul O'Higgins' family lived in Salt Lake City but maintained a ranch in San Diego. Paul, to become Pablo, spent a lot of time working on the ranch and the contact with the Mexican workers left quite an impression on him. After attending East High (his last classes there were Art and Spanish) he enrolled in an Art school in San Diego, there a friend from Guaymas gave him an article from the magazine 'The Arts' (October 1923). The article talked about Diego Rivera and the muralist movement and Pablo was hooked. Pablo wrote Diego and was invited to "come and see what was happening."

While in Mexico, Arija contracted some illness and was treated but, as Mimi recalls the story, she may have been over-treated and in her weakened state succumbed to leukemia. The death of Arija threw Nick into a terrible depression. Nick felt responsible, perhaps for being too over-bearing and demanding a parent. He then married Peggy, about 25 years his junior, and had Mimi and then Chris. Mimi can barely recall the trip the family made to visit Frida and Diego in the summer of 1951. Frida was bed-ridden at that time. The young kids were introduced to her, then told to play outside.

"Dad was strict, old-world European. Tough." Mimi wishes that she had gotten to know him better but he was in his 70's during her teenage years and probably didn't feel like dealing with all the issues involved with raising a child. For Grammar school both Mimi and Chris were sent to a boarding school near Lake Placid, New York. In High School they were back in the city and Mimi dreamt of moving out west, to the real ski mountains. A friend of hers, a connection to the manager of Alta Lodge, arraigned a job there for her. Mimi moved to Alta mid-January 1966, a year after her father's death. Her first job was at the front desk, exactly the same spot from which she spoke to me via telephone for this interview. She fell in love with the owner, Bill Levitt, and they have been happily together, since. As a consequence of Mimi's move to Alta, her brother came out and worked at Alta, too. Ten years later he moved to his home in Moab, where our story began.

The last two images of this series are:

Frida with Granizo

Frida with the fawn, the identity of innocence wounded; and

Frida Icon,

a classic portrait with a halo from the imperfections of the negative. I see Frida as a woman in the act of choosing her identity, as difficult and close to impossible as that might be, especially when confronted with the infidelities of the-love-of-her-life. I'll take Diego as my proof. Frida vowed to marry Diego, and have his children, before she had ever met him. I wonder how Frida saw herself. Mustache, eyebrow, jewelry, costumes, cigarettes, trash-mouth, and all; she did what she did and laid it out there. She could not hide from her condition, only leave traces of it in the multiple facets of her gem-like paintings. And in the memories she has left with all the people who love her.

Tina rolled her eyes at the mention of the psychological analysis of Frida and her portraits. "Frida would have laughed."

story by Anna Zumwalt