March, 2008

HAGERSTOWN, MD — Carlos Ruano fell in love when he was 20, sitting in Diego Rivera's studio in Mexico — but it wasn't with Frida Kahlo. It was with her close friend, Delores Torriente, a Cuban journalist who was writing a book on Diego.

"She'd go to Diego's studio once a week," Ruano said.

He began tagging along, spending long afternoons with the artists. Usually, Diego would be working. Frida limped around the studio, wearing headdresses she made from flowers and lace, acting as hostess: "always nice," Ruano said, "offering coffee or 'want a soda,' things like that." A monkey wandered around, too, as did their mute Mexican dog (Ruano swore he never heard it bark).

"I was very naïve," he admitted. "Ignorant about everything. I didn't know anything about art when I moved to Mexico (from Cuba). I thought, 'Wow — what kind of world is this?' It was new and alienating to me, but fascinating at the same time."

Before Mexico, Ruano was "trying to be a bull fighter." He laughed when he told the story of his four-year apprenticeship, realizing the ridiculousness of going from training in this macho position to taking a liking (obsession, really) to painting.

Ruano, 83, has painted every day since his visits to Diego's studio in the 1940s.

"I started painting because of that woman," he said, dreamily.

Again, he wasn't referring to Frida but lover Delores, who provided him with art supplies (easel, canvas, oils and brushes), while Frida chatted away on art and politics.

Politics before art, Ruano said — most likely because Diego was a prominent Communist. "'Art should be done for the masses,' she would say, 'not for the bourgeoisie.'"

I knew nothing about art," Ruano said. "Nothing. I started painting very late. I got introduced to art when I was 20 — that's late. What could I talk about? I just listened to her."

Frida, already well-known by this time, was "always at the studio," though Ruano never actually caught her painting, because it was Diego's workspace. (He watched Diego paint several times.)

"He was a giant beside Frida, but now Frida has the big name."

Ruano, who said he's seen all her work except for pieces belonging to private collections, said she never copied Diego in any way.

"The paintings are naïve but passionately honest," he said of her work. "All of her art is a reflection of her psyche ... why most of the paintings are surrealistic."

"She did many self portraits, showing all her wounds and her miscarriage... She really prayed to have a child — but it never happened."

Another self-portrait, Ruano recalled, shows the monkey who lived at Diego's studio.

"She said she was born in 1910, because that was the year of the Mexican Revolution," Carlos said. "She was really born a few years before that." He chuckled. "She was that kind of woman."

She was always in bad health, he remembered. "A very strong character, but a victim of all the circumstances of the accident." Ruano wasn't in Mexico for the funeral.

"Frida was looking, always, all her life, for something important," Ruano said. "You'd feel sorry for her if you met her. Well, she had Diego — that was her god. What she was searching for — adventure or happiness — that is a mystery."

The Frida Kahlo exhibition is on view at the Philadelphia Museum of Art through May 18, 2008

Lauren LaRocca is the arts and entertainment reporter for The Frederick News-Post in Maryland.

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© 2008 Lauren LaRocca and InLiquid; image © Banco de México Diego Rivera & Frida Kahlo Museums Trust. Av. Cinco de Mayo No. 2, Col. Centro, Del. Cuauhtémoc 06059, México, D.F.