The news had caused a stir worldwide and at least in Mexico for great euphoria – despite all uncertainties. In the archive, which the radio station Televisa had donated to the national phonology library for digitization and evaluation, the experts discovered a tape recording to which Frida Kahlo was to be heard. "Frida's voice has always been a big mystery, an endless search," said director of the phono library, Pável Granados. Mexico's Minister of Culture Alejandra Frausto also emphasized the historical significance of the find: So far there has been no admission of Kahlo.
Frida Kahlo recording is from the 1950s
The recording probably comes from a 1955 broadcast pilot show and should have been recorded in 1953 or 1954. The program contained a short biography of the painter Diego Rivera, with whom Kahlo was married twice. A woman's voice reads from her essay "Portrait about Diego", which appeared in a 1949 exhibition catalog.
The most famous painter in Latin America could have spoken this recording herself. In the almost two-minute excerpt she speaks very quickly, lovingly describes the woman her husband as "a big kid, immensely, with a friendly face and sad look."
-
Highlights of the exhibition "Frida Kahlo: Making Her Self Up"
The iconic defiant look
Frida's father Guillermo originally came from Pforzheim. The photographer suffered from epilepsy and was grateful for the crises Frida suffered because of her health problems. Frida occasionally posed for him in his studio, "often looking directly at the camera, with her typically defiant face," said Ana Baeza Ruiz, a collaborator in the exhibition. This portrait is from 1926.
-
Highlights of the exhibition "Frida Kahlo: Making Her Self Up"
Frida in color
The exhibition titled "Frida Kahlo: Making Her Self Up" features more than 200 personal objects as well as paintings and photographs by the artist. "Frida Kahlo was a feminist symbol of counterculture, and this exhibition clearly shows how Frida Kahlo created her own identity," said Claire Wilco, the co-curator. (Photo: Nickolas Muray, 1939)
-
Highlights of the exhibition "Frida Kahlo: Making Her Self Up"
Traditional elements
Kahlo used clothes as a political statement. Part of her artist personality was her "Mestizo" lineage, to which she alluded with her clothes. The exhibition features many of her personal pieces, including rebozos (Mexican scarves), Huipiles (traditional tops), Enaguas (underwear), typical floor-length skirts, and accessories from before Columbus.
-
Highlights of the exhibition "Frida Kahlo: Making Her Self Up"
A telling coat
After a momentous accident on a tram, Kahlo was handcuffed to the bed for months. During this time she taught herself painting. With much creativity she helped herself through this terrible phase – with the help of her art as well as the way to dress. Here you can see a Guatemalan cotton coat, including a Mazatian huipil and a floor-length skirt.
-
Highlights of the exhibition "Frida Kahlo: Making Her Self Up"
relief efforts
Also, medicine ampoules, orthopedic supports and this prosthetic leg with leather boots, silk applications and embroidered Chinese motifs are exhibited in London. Kahlo had many supportive bodices and back bandages. Some of the corsets she has painted with religious and communist symbols are also on display. Even those on which she processed her miscarriages.
-
Highlights of the exhibition "Frida Kahlo: Making Her Self Up"
face recognition
Kahlo deliberately violated prevailing ideals of beauty by drawing her famous monobrake with an ebony eyebrow pencil. This and other cosmetics, some still in their original packaging, can be seen in the exhibition. With her strong make-up Kahlo emphasized her facial features, as the color photographs by Nickolas Muray show.
-
Highlights of the exhibition "Frida Kahlo: Making Her Self Up"
Bold and beguiling
Hungarian-born US photographer Nickolas Muray shot some of Kahlo's most famous portraits. Although she was married to the famous Mexican painter Diego Rivera, she had a decades-long affair with the portrait photographer and was friends with him until her death in 1954. Among his best known photos are this and the following portrait, both from 1939.
-
Highlights of the exhibition "Frida Kahlo: Making Her Self Up"
"Making Her Self Up"
Flower arrangements, thick braids, an almost brash facial hair, chunky accessories, bold color combinations: These are just a few of the features that Frida Kahlo used to create her very own artist identity – from head to toe. From 16 June to 4 November 2018, the V & A Museum in London will display exhibits that have never been seen outside of Mexico.
Author / Author: Sabrina Cooper
But despite all the euphoria also limited the phon sound in her tweet on the alleged discovery of the voice Frida Kahlos cautious that the excerpt was "probably read by her", but that was not yet clear.
Profiling like a ransom call
According to the possibly great historical significance, the recordings are now subjected to a test in order to finally verify the genuineness. The safer the result should be, the more time-consuming the procedure becomes, which is similar to a criminalistic way of working. In the beginning, profiling the voice, comparable to the process of a ransom call, says Martin Steinebach, Head of Media Security and IT Forensics at the Fraunhofer Institute for Secure Information Technology. He and his team have checked for the "mirror" and the "Süddeutsche Zeitung" the authenticity of the so-called Ibiza video, the publication of which had the break of the government in Austria.
Every detail is being analyzed
"The first step is to assess whether the voice matches the given source," explains Steinebach. "There's biographical information about Frida Kahlo: where did she grow up, who were the parents?" Does the voice fit in with a woman of this age growing up in this region? There may be a regional accent, and one compares whether to use the words are typical of the milieu. "
The whole process of verification involves a number of specialists in different fields, and the technical analysis is only performed in the second step. If Martin Steinebach got comparable material to test, it would first be digitized in order to be able to follow up on possible tracks: "With which device was recorded, which year did the device come from? Recordings can have characteristic fluctuations, which is why it is checked whether the behavior of the Tape reel fits the devices of the times. "
Frida Kahlo has left numerous pictures, but a sound recording was not yet known
Since the recording should come from the 1950s, reference devices would have to be requested from collectors or archives in order to make their own recordings and to be able to compare their fluctuation behavior with the behavior of the material to be examined. "We call it ballistics, the term is used when assigning a bullet to a weapon, and the combination of device and medium is the first step."
Problem: There is no second source
Sascha Zmudzinski, who is responsible for cybersecurity and media analysis training at the Fraunhofer Institute, also points to the substrate: "The tapes have multiple magnetic layers." Was the manufacturing process common then, was this medium available in that location? " If one can find out where the radio stations bought their material at that time, the manufacturers could possibly help with information. Zmudzinski draws a comparison to the Hitler diaries whose falsification was stolen because of the material used: In a test under ultraviolet light brighteners were detected at that time, which had been used in papermaking only since the 1950s.
While there is often a reference in historical documents-another recording or other image that can be used to make comparisons and deduce similarities or differences-the sound source on which Frida Kahlo is said to be unique. The phonotheque hopes that there are more recordings of the painter in the archive of the radio station, but there is currently no second source.
Absolute safety will not exist
Therefore, even after a thorough examination of the material, you will not be able to make a complete statement about whether it really is Frida Kahlo, says Martin Steinebach. "But it is not impossible to check without reference whether the speech and the voice fit the given person." Frida Kahlo is a special case because of her illnesses.
Lifelong pain: Frida Kahlo
At the age of six, the artist was suffering from polio. When she was 18, a steel pole in a bus accident pierced her abdomen, "like the sword the bull," as Kahlo himself called it. This was followed by more than 30 operations in as many years. Often she had to lie in bed for weeks, trapped in a steel corset or a full body plaster. "What effect does it have on the voice if someone suffers from polio and has long worn a steel corset?" Asks Sascha Zmudzinski. These limitations could lead to conclusions about the speech behavior. "A medical forensic scientist could estimate whether the voice, the way in which speech is spoken and air is drawn, fit the appropriate person," adds Martin Steinebach.
A lot of work for the examiners
There is a lot of diligence in front of the experts in Mexico. Even the consequential verification of the Ibiza video was easier, because the scientists not only audio, but also video material was available, explains Steinebach: "The more data and reference material available, the more resilient in the end, the forensic statement."
-
Private photos of Frida Kahlo
Vulnerable femininity
Only few people showed Frida Kahlo her tender, defenseless side. Intimate moments were only allowed to be photographed by her lover, the photographer Nickolas Murray. A serious accident, surgery and countless hospital stays shaped her life. Her colorful staging as an artist was juxtaposed with an everyday life that has been handed down in black and white photographs.
-
Private photos of Frida Kahlo
"Lover Diego …"
With care and meticulousness, Frida Kahlo has collected her photo collection: works by famous photographers of her time, such as Tina Modotti or Man Ray, as well as private snapshots, such as this photograph by the painter Diego Rivera. The motifs often appeared in her paintings. She liked to "sign" her favorite photos with a lipstick kiss or wrote down her thoughts on the edge.
-
Private photos of Frida Kahlo
Insight into the family album
Private photo albums, bound in cloth or fine leather, were indispensable to Frida's childhood for every home-style household. Her father, Guillermo Kahlo, was a photographer and gave her the love of photography as a child. Often she sat him model. Later, her own photo collection also served as a permanent self-assurance as an artist: who am I? And why am I like that?
-
Private photos of Frida Kahlo
The parents
Frida Kahlo's father, a German to whom Frida later attributed Hungarian-Jewish roots, emigrated to Mexico in 1891 and became one of the country's best known photographers. Mathilde Calderón, her mother, had indigenous and Spanish ancestry and was "terribly exaggerated in religious matters," Frida complained.
-
Private photos of Frida Kahlo
Photography as a consolation
Her father adored his daughter Frida and made countless artistic portraits of her. She often accompanied him on his excursions and helped develop the photographs. With this, the parents tried to reassure her of her disability, which she had withheld from polio.
-
Private photos of Frida Kahlo
Painting on the sickbed
In 1925, her life changed abruptly: In a bus accident Kahlo was seriously injured. An iron bar had drilled through her body. She almost died of internal injuries. Chained to the bedside, she began to write a diary, to paint. Since then hospital stays have been part of her everyday life. In order to paint while lying down, she had herself built special equipment.
-
Private photos of Frida Kahlo
Tradition-loving artist couple
At the age of 22, the painter married 43-year-old Diego Rivera, the then most successful artist in Mexico. She admired him and assisted him with a huge mural. The big age difference did not bother her. Diego called her "his dove". He loved it when she – traditionally – adorned herself with the colors of indigenous Mexican clothing.
-
Private photos of Frida Kahlo
Trip to the USA
In 1932, Diego Rivera of the car manufacturer Ford got a big contract for a political mural. The artist was fascinated by the abstract design idiom of the industrial world. Kahlo traveled with him to the USA. In San Francisco, the painter exhibited for the first time and was celebrated. But her homesickness was too big. Already in 1934, the couple moved back home, to Mexico.
-
Private photos of Frida Kahlo
Countless lovers
Kahlo was often unhappy in her marriage to Rivera, who had countless affairs. They divorced and married again in 1940. She also plunged into ever-changing love adventures with women and men. Her lover, the professional photographer Nikolas Muray (left), always remained her faithful companion and documented her life until her death in 1954. She was only 47 years old.
-
Private photos of Frida Kahlo
Precious picture treasure
The private photographic archive of the famous Mexican painter Frida Kahlo contains 6500 pictures. It was not until 2007, many years after her death, that the historical collection became publicly accessible. The Mexican curator Pablo Ortiz Monasterio has selected 241 photos for the presentation, which can be seen until May 10, 2015 at MARTA Herford.
Author / Author: Heike Mund
Frida Kahlo, who became popular with folk painting in the styles Surrealism and New Objectivity, is today a myth – also because she fought her way into the male domain of painting. To the Russian revolutionary and communist Leon Trotsky, with whom she had an affair, Kahlo gave a house in which Trotsky hid. Throughout her life she suffered from the pain she used in her paintings, 55 of her 143 works are self-portraits. The last few years Frida Kahlo spent in a wheelchair, in 1954 she died at the age of 47 years.
ليست هناك تعليقات