Goodbye, Columbus: Frida and Diego's American Dream

The Object

In the fall of 1930, Frida Kahlo and Diego Rivera travel to the United States for the first time, welcomed as celebrity artists, ambassadors of an ancient and powerful Latin American identity. But as the months turn to years, can Rivera’s vision of one united Pan-America--and their young marriage--survive the pressures of politics, fame, temptation, cultural differences, and scandal? You can see examples of Diego Rivera’s work, and that of other modernist Mexican artists, in the collection of the Minneapolis Institute of Art: https://collections.artsmia.org/search/diego%20rivera You can see Rivera’s San Francisco mural “Pan American Unity,” discussed on the show, here: https://www.sfmoma.org/exhibition/pan-american-unity/ You can see photos of Frida and Diego taking San Francisco by storm here: https://www.kqed.org/news/11848986/inside-frida-kahlo-and-diego-riveras-life-in-san-francisco You can see (and read) Kahlo’s heartfelt letter to Rivera from a San Francisco hospital (“Diego, mi amor”) in the collection of the Smithsonian: https://www.si.edu/object/frida-kahlo-letter-diego-rivera%3AAAADCD_item_739 You can read about and see images from the SFMOMA’s excellent recent exhibition “Diego Rivera’s America” here: https://www.sfmoma.org/exhibition/diego-riveras-america/ Last and certainly not least, you can read some of the story “Queen of Montgomery Street,” written about Kahlo in San Francisco, also in the Smithsonian: https://www.si.edu/object/AAADCD_item_766