Frida Kahlo
in the Nickolas Muray Papers

Archives of American Art, Smithsonian Institution
Celebrates Hispanic Heritage Month 2001

Kahlo left for Paris in 1939 to be part of the exhibition Mexique, curated by the Surrealist André Breton. Eighteen paintings by Kahlo were included in the show, as well as photographs by Manuel Alvarez Bravo, some pre-Colombian pieces, and a selection of popular art objects: retablos, toys, sugar skulls, masks, and ceramics. Upon her arrival in Paris she was outraged to learn that Breton had not yet retained a gallery for the exhibition or claimed her paintings from the customs house. Her only praise was for the Surrealist painter Marcel Duchamp and the American Mary Reynolds. Duchamp came to her aid by retrieving the paintings and arranging an exhibition at the Pierre Colle Gallery.

" ... I had to wait like an idiot till I met Marcel Duchamp (a marvelous painter) who is the only one who has his feet on the earth, among all this bunch of coocoo lunatic - of the Surrealists .... They are so damn "intelectual" [sic] and rotten that I can't stand them any more. It is really too much for my character - I rather sit on the floor in the market of Toluca and sell tortillas, than to have anything to do with those "artistic" --- of Paris. ... I never seen Diego or you, wasting their time on stupid gossip and "intelectual" [sic] discussions. That is why you are real men and not lousy "artists"..."

Duchamp and Reynolds further helped Kahlo by offering their home while she recuperated from a serious kidney infection she developed just weeks after her arrival in Paris. This letter to Nickolas Muray was written from the American Hospital in Paris where she received treatment.