Opera Steamboat presents
Frida Kahlo’s Garden
June 18– August 11, 2021
Hosted by Steamboat Creates and Yampa River Botanic Park
Collaborating with Integrated Community and Bud Werner Memorial Library
Art Exhibition at Steamboat Creates Depot Art Center
Hours: Monday-Friday (5 – 8 p.m.) and Saturday-Sunday (10 a.m. – 6 p.m.)
Location: 1001 13th St., Steamboat Springs, CO 80487
Garden Installation at Yampa River Botanic Park
Hours: Dawn until dusk
Location: 1000 Pamela Ln., Steamboat Springs, CO 80487
This exhibition is made possible by NEH on the Road, a special initiative of the National Endowment for the Humanities. Frida Kahlo’s Garden is adapted from the exhibition, FRIDA KAHLO: ART, GARDEN, LIFE, organized by guest curator Adriana Zavala at The New York Botanical Garden. It was made possible with major funding from the Institute of Museum and Library Services, Karen Katen Foundation, The LuEsther T. Mertz Charitable Trust, MetLife Foundation, National Endowment for the Arts, National Endowment for the Humanities, New York State Council on the Arts with the support of Governor Andrew M. Cuomo and the New York State Legislature, and Gillian and Robert Steel. It was adapted and toured for NEH on the Road by the Mid-America Arts Alliance.
Thank you to the Denver Art Museum for collaborating with us via their Mexican Modernism Museum WebQuest.
With additional support from El Pomar.
With additional support from the Craig Scheckman Family Foundation
With additional support from the Colorado Mountain College
With additional support from the Residence Inn by Mariott
ART EXHIBITION
Frida Kahlo (1907–1954) is considered one of the most significant artists of the twentieth century. Her body of work, consisting of some 250 paintings and drawings, is at once intensely personal and universal in scope, and relies heavily on the natural world. The exhibition Frida Kahlo’s Garden transports visitors to Kahlo’s garden to experience her world as she did.
The garden at Casa Azul (or Blue House), Kahlo’s lifelong home in Coyoacán, Mexico City, was a creative refuge and a source of inspiration for the artist and her husband, Diego Rivera (1886–1957). The garden, which was filled with native plants, housed Kahlo and Rivera’s collection of pre-Hispanic artifacts and folk art displayed on a four-tiered pyramid inspired by the Mesoamerican city of Teotihuacan. This exhibition offers insights into the ways in which the garden at Casa Azul, the diversity of plant life in Mexico, and the rich cultural history of the country nourished the creativity of the world’s great artists.
Often overshadowed by her husband’s career and the traumatic events in her life, this exhibition approaches Kahlo from a different angle, to broaden the discussion of the artist by focusing on the influence of her surrounding environment, both natural and nationalistic. This approach examines her garden, her home, and the revolutionary influences that impacted her life.
Kahlo’s works are filled with colorful and compelling depictions of flowers, foliage, and fruits, many native to Mexico. Her choice of botanical imagery reflects the embrace of archetypal Mexican indigenous and natural elements that defined art in the decades following the Mexican Revolution (1910–20). Through her profoundly personal paintings, which convey cultural, spiritual, and intimate messages, her reverence for nature, and her nationalistic fashion sense, Kahlo has become an icon within the artistic world.
GARDEN INSTALLATION
The Yampa River Botanic Park will host a live garden installation for the Frida Kahlo exhibit that showcases the plants Frida cultivated in her garden. The plants will be potted in traditional terra cotta pots as she would have had at her home. The plants will be labeled with US and Mexican common names and the scientific names. Examples include Sunflower/Girasol/Helianthus annuus; Dahlia/Dalia/Dahlia sp.; Agave/Maguey/Agave americana; and Bougainvillea/Bugambilia/Bouganvillea sp. These colorful flowers and interesting textures inspired Frida’s work and will complement the art installation.
BUD WERNER MEMORIAL LIBRARY PROGRAMMING
The Bud Werner Memorial Library will program these two films to illuminate & celebrate the Frida Kahlo’s Garden exhibit presented by Opera Steamboat during summer 2021.
Frida Kahlo (June 18 – 28, 2021)
Diego Rivera: I Paint What I See (July 5 – 15, 2021)
SPEAKERS FOR FRIDA KAHLO’S GARDEN EXHIBITION
Join Zoom Meeting:
https://us02web.zoom.us/j/84834831576
Meeting ID: 848 3483 1576
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Jennifer MacNeil – Executive Director for the Yampa River Botanic Park
The plants and flowers from Frida Kahlo’s Garden – A horticultural presentation.
Event passed – July 1, 2021.
Robert Dieckhoff – Acclaimed Visual Artist (worked in Mexican Consulate and responsible for bringing Diego Rivera exhibit to Steamboat Springs) Guided Tour of Frida Exhibit
June 21 – 25, 1:00 – 4:30pm at the Depot Art Center – registration required via Steamboat Creates
The Women of Mexican Modernism
An era regarded as a renaissance in Mexican art, Mexican Modernism was shaped by not just the grandeur of politically charged murals by los Tres Grandes or the deeply reflective self-portraits by the now globally known Frida Kahlo, but a series of women artists who challenged the existing narratives and styles, each forging their own path through representations of country, psyche, culture, and womanhood.
Laura Almeida – Doctoral Curatorial Fellow of Modern and Contemporary Art
How Frida Kahlo, Diego Rivera, and Their Modernist Circle Shaped Mexico’s Artistic Culture
This course session will explore major themes in the exhibition Frida Kahlo, Diego Rivera & Mexican Modernism from the Jacques and Natasha Gelman Collection. Learn more about how Kahlo and Diego became the forefront of the Mexican Modernist Movement—forming circles of influence among intellectuals, artists, and patrons, and how the Modernist artists celebrated national identity, creative spirit, and appreciation of Indigenous cultures in the wake of the Mexican Revolution.
August 4 at 5:30pm MT – On ZOOM
Tariana Naves-Nieves – Director, Cultural Affairs, Denver Arts & Venues, Latin American Art Specialist and former Curator of Latin American Art for the Colorado Springs Fine Arts Center, Museo de las Americas, a series of private art collections, and Curatorial Associate for the Denver Art Museum
The Women of Mexican Modernism
An era regarded as a renaissance in Mexican art, Mexican Modernism was shaped by not just the grandeur of politically charged murals by los Tres Grandes or the deeply reflective self-portraits by the now globally-known Frida Kahlo, but a series of women artists who challenged the existing narratives and styles, each forging their own path through representations of country, psyche, culture, and womanhood. In this course session, explore the diversity of works by María Izquierdo, Remedios Varo, Leonora Carrington, Lola Alvarez Bravo, and Frida, of course.
JULY 14, 2021 at 5:30pm MT – On ZOOM
Steven LaBrie – Mexican- American Baritone and Adam Nielsen – Pianist
Mexico, Mi Tierra Querida – A 60-minute concert and lecture on the music of Mexico, from popular Chicano music to classical music created by Mexican 20th century composers.
July 20, 2021 7:30pm Strings Pavilion (See our 2021 Season page for more information)
Scott Yeates — Mixologist – The Art of Plant-Based Cocktails – Discussing the 1,000 different botanicals that can be used to make gin, Yeates will take us through the gin making process, which botanicals he uses in his award winning gin and what each one brings to the flavor of the finished product.
June 30th, 5:30pm
Cassie Wilhelm –
Art Teacher – teaching Steamboat Creates’ Young at Art Creativity Camps – Skewed View: Surrealism – Imagination is key to surrealism. Let your imagination run wild while learning the building blocks of painting and exploring the abstract. Campers will explore texture, color and composition to bring their imaginative concepts to life through art. Full week camp. Ages 8-12
Cassie Wilhelm is painter and tatoo artist. Her work is influenced by Frida Kahlo, Alice Neil, Georgia O’Keeffe, Jim Henson, and Claude Monet.
Friday, June 25th, 5:30pm
Adriana Zavala – Curator of original Frida Exhibit at the New York Botanic Park.
Associate Professor of Art History at Tufts Adriana Zavala will be interviewed by textile artist, Wendy Kowynia. The two will explore her work on the “Frida Kahlo: Art, Garden, Life” exhibit in the New York Botanical Garden. Her original exhibit is the basis for the current exhibit in Steamboat Springs this summer.
July 1 at 5:30 pm at Yampa River Botanic Park
Watch Video Here
photograph: Nicholas Murray