Frida & Diego Exhibit at the AGO
(Art Gallery of Ontario)
"HE PAINTED FOR THE PEOPLE.
SHE PAINTED TO SURVIVE."
-Quoted from AGO's Frida
and Diego Exhibit banners
This past week I had the opportunity to visit the AGO with my cousin and close friend Maria Merecoulias. Maria is a high school teacher, graduate student, and art enthusiast. In addition to all of this, she is a gifted painter and has inspired me to pursue my own creative passions.
Here are Maria's reflections on the AGO's Freda and Diego Exhibit:
On "Art is a Weapon"
By: Maria Merecoulias
This t-shirt, memorabilia
from the Frida and Diego exhibit currently curated at the AGO by Dot Tuer, has a profound message printed on it. “Art is a weapon (in
the class struggle)”, a quote from Diego Rivera, a man who is at once an
artist, a political activist, and a proud Mexican among a myriad of other
epithets. Art can indeed be utilized as a weapon, a message, a tool, instead of
more harmful dangerous weapons common in the ‘fight’ for freedom. Often,
educators encounter students who are limited in their communication abilities,
resulting in frustration because they cannot express themselves. Art can be the
vehicle for which these students reveal their thoughts. Frustration and
opposition in the form of art is an infinitely more effective release than
other manifestations of frustration. No one is suggesting that ‘weapons’ are de
jour, but to equate art with the power of a weapon is to say that art can
conquer ‘evil’, art can ‘fight for freedom’, art can lead the way for political
dialogue as Diego’s quote intended, and for learning as we would suggest via
this post. 
Both Diego and
Frida were famous in their native Mexico, revered and respected for their
various art forms and contributions to Mexican culture. Mainstream North
American culture tends to limit the scope of art’s holy grail to predominantly
European artists, and essentializes artists like Diego and Frida, the duo are
synonymous with Mexican folk art, and self-portraits respectively. However
their art has far more breadth and depth than what’s widely known, and is more
complex than the tokenistic exotic representations of Mexican art in popular
European and North American museums. The classroom is a reflection of the world
at large; as such, if educators want to promote multiple ways of knowing, stray
from Western ‘classics’ and forge a journey of discovery that’s extraordinary,
this would be a great place to start. The Mexican culture is vast, beyond tacos
and sombreros, if we dig deeper into our own ‘cultural’ (mis)representations in
an attempt to be multicultural, we will notice that stereotypical
representations are prevalent and can do a lot of damage. There’s no simple method for inclusive
art in the classroom, but acknowledging that the current practices are
lackluster is a paint splatter in the right direction.
I thank Maria for her profound insights, and for introducing me to two new artists that I would have never known about had we not visited this exhibit.
To close this Friday's feature, I would like to spotlight a few children's resources that pertain to today's "On Display" piece:
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| Diego Rivera Children's Books |
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| Frida Kahlo Children's Books |
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| Frida's World Art App for Apple Users |
Thank you to Maria Merecoulias for her contributions to our blog. We look forward to having her as a guest blogger again soon!
Please note that the title of this blog post and images have been taken from the AGO's Frida and Diego Exhibit page http://www.ago.net/frida-diego-passion-politics-and-painting, outside the AGO, in the AGO gift shop, and from google images. Photographs in the actual exhibit were prohibited.
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