Collector Anne-Marie Springer on letters from Frida Kahlo, Paul Gauguin and Vincent van Gogh
On the vernissage Exhibitions “Viva la Vida! Frida Kahlo and Diego Rivera" I met the largest collector of letters, Anna-Maria Springer, who spoke about her collection, unpublished messages from major artists, and what information private correspondence provides.
Anne-Marie Springer actively publishes her collection. Publications published: "Tell me that you love me even if it's not true"with love letters from Catherine II, Napoleon, Marie de Medici, Elvis Presley and others, as well as "Intimate Letters" with messages from Louis XV, Egon Schiele and Edith Piaf.
How did you start collecting love letters?
In 1994 my daughter was born. I bought the first letter. I wanted to convey my love and something special to my daughter, so I started collecting letters, mostly with love themes.
What did reading Frida Kahlo's letters to her lover Diego Rivera give you?
The letters “open the door” to Frida’s painting, de-veil her emotional state and physical suffering, which manifested itself in the painting.
Your recent acquisitions...
I just bought Paul Gauguin's letters.
A love letter from Paul Gauguin?
About love…. to painting. In this letter, written late in his life in Tahiti, Gauguin explains his painting by making references to other artists, musicians and the difficult conditions in which he worked.
Other letters?
A letter from Vincent van Gogh, in which he describes the painting he is working on at the moment and, as it were, “in between times” he creates his famous “Sunflowers”.
Returning to Frida Kahlo, what distinguishes her letters from those of Gauguin and van Gogh?
Unlike Frida, van Gogh and Gauguin did not suffer physically. Her constant pain, operations, and state of health are sadly reflected in her messages. The painting of Frida Kahlo explains all this.
Paintings by Frida Kahlo (Mexico, 1907 - 1954) and her constant addressee, the love of her life Diego Rivera, are presented until March 12 in the Moscow Manege. The exhibition displays works from the storerooms of the Pushkin Museum. A. S. Pushkin, a significant part of the collection of the Mexican Dolores Olmedo Museum and large private collections. Many works are available to the general public for the first time in Russia.
It is interesting that for a long time Frida’s painting was in the shadow of the art of her lover. Her work was considered decadent and amateur. Meanwhile, the personal essence of her art is now extremely valued. A youthful illness, a bus accident, the desire to have children and spontaneous abortions, her husband’s betrayal and years spent in a hospital bed - as if all the hardships of the world fell upon Frida to find visual reflection in her frank creativity.
To create the most complete image of the artist, in addition to painting, the exhibition includes copies of Frida’s corsets, which she painted in the hospital, inspired by folk art. They are difficult to find on the art market, and their prices start at $5 million. At a press conference, the organizer of the exhibition, chairman of the board of the cultural and historical foundation “Link of Times”, director of the Faberge Museum, Vladimir Voronchenko, noted that when the museum made exhibition of Frida Kahlo in St. Petersburg, more than 45% of visitors are young women under 30 years old. Many of them came specifically for this exhibition from other regions. For several generations of women around the world, Frida Kahlo is not only about painting, but also about personal empathy.
The bright exoticism of the works of Frida Kahlo and Diego Rivera, the pain of loss, and love letters will not leave the viewer indifferent. The high quality of the exhibition, on which, according to the organizers, many millions of euros were spent, is worth a visit and careful immersion.
