On the trail of Frida Kahlo and Diego Rivera in Mexico

Art trail highlights the work of Frida Kahlo and Diego Rivera

WITH her unibrow, braided updo and colorful clothing, the late Mexican artist Frida Kahlo has become an idiosyncratic cult figure in the U.S.

Kahlo has an equally passionate following in her native Mexico City. Her face is plastered on everything from handbags and jewelry to wall hangings and aprons. Her husband, the late muralist Diego Rivera, was better known during their lifetimes, but she’s eclipsed him in fame since their deaths in the 1950s.

All around Mexico City, Fridaand-Diego-philes can find the couple’s work at more than a dozen museums and public spaces. Here are some stops on the Kahlo-Rivera trail:

Casa Azul

The Frida Kahlo Museum, also known as Casa Azul, or the Blue House, for its cobalt blue walls, was Kahlo’s birthplace and childhood home. She later lived there with Rivera for several years during their marriage. It opened as a museum in 1958 and is maintained to look as it would have in the 1950s. It’s one of Mexico City’s most popular museums, with about 25,000 visitors monthly. Displays include some of Kahlo’s artwork, including a still life of watermelons called “Viva La Vida,” or “Long Live Life.” But the real appeal is the memorabilia and other personal items, with earthenware pots in the kitchen, and Kahlo’s corsets and colorful clothing. Londres 247, Colonia Del Carmen, Coyoacan

Diego Rivera and Frida Kahlo House and Studio Museum

Kahlo lived on and off in another blue house in the southern neighborhood of San Angel, a smaller structure connected by a walkway bridge to a white and pink house-studio once occupied by Rivera.

The couple lived there beginning in 1934. The buildings designed by painter and architect Juan O’Gorman are surrounded by tall cactuses and located a block from the San Angel Inn, a popular restaurant. Huge papier-mache skeleton and Judas figures populate Rivera’s sunlight-flooded studio. At Avenida Altavista and Diego Rivera, Colonia San Angel Inn.

Dolores Olmedo Museum

This museum is the former home of a famous patron of the couple. It houses one of the most important collections of work by both artists, including two dozen by Kahlo. Among the best known are Kahlo’s “The Broken Column” and “Self Portrait with Small Monkey.” (Note that this collection of Kahlo’s work is in Italy through June.)

The sprawling complex of stone buildings dating to the 16th century also displays works of other Mexican artists. Luminous green and blue peacocks and hairless xoloitzcuintle dogs roam the grounds. Avenida Mexico 5843, Hacienda La Noria, Xochimilco

Diego Rivera Museo Anahuacalli

This museum is a pyramid built from black volcanic rock to house some 50,000 statues and other pre-Hispanic artwork collected by Rivera. Several of his sketches for murals are also displayed. Museo 150, Coyoacan

Museum of Modern Art

Several of the couple’s works are displayed here, including “The Two Fridas,” one of Kahlo’s most famous paintings. At Reforma and Gandhi, Chapultepec Park Diego Rivera Mural Museum

This small museum is home to Rivera’s well-known mural “Dream of a Sunday Afternoon in Alameda Park.” Initially created for a restaurant in the Hotel Prado, the mural was moved to the new museum after the hotel was nearly destroyed in the deadly 1985 earthquake. At Balderas and Colon, Colonia Centro

Fine Arts Palace

The Palacio de Bellas Artes houses several Rivera murals, including “Man, Controller of the Universe,” which features a workman surrounded by machinery. Several other important Rivera murals can be seen inside the palace. At Juarez and Eje Central, Centro Historico

National Palace

Rivera painted a series of murals on the stairway walls and corridors of the Palacio Nacional, some depicting the conquest of Mexico by Spanish conquistadors. Other murals feature pre-Hispanic cultures including the Zapotec and Mixtec civilizations. At Plaza de la Constitucion, Centro Historico

San Idelfonso College

Rivera’s mural “The Creation” can be seen at this museum and cultural center, which is regarded as the birthplace of the Mexican mural movement. Works by other muralists including Jose Clemente Orozco are also displayed. Justo Sierra 16, Centro Historico

Dolores Sump

Inside a monument to Mexico City’s water system called the Carcamo de Dolores, Rivera painted a little-known mural, “Water, the Source of Life,” in a pool. The work was designed to be viewed underwater, but the pool was drained when it became clear that the work would slowly be ruined. At Rodolfo Neri Vela, Chapultepec Park

Ross D. Franklin The Associated Press Frida Kahlo’s work area at Casa Azul, also known as the Frida Kahlo Museum, where she and Diego Rivera lived and worked.

Anita Snow The Associated Press The Diego Rivera Museo Anahuacalli houses some 50,000 statues and other pre-Hispanic artwork collected by Rivera.

Frida Kahlo Museum Frida Kahlo’s “Self-Portrait in a Velvet Dress,” which she painted in 1926.