I was really impressed by el Museo Barrio located at 104th and 5th Ave, on edge of Spanish harlem. It was a mandatory trip for my Spanish class and it really proved to be more than worthwhile. There were some very impressive pieces with rich and intense stories behind them. Some favorites include Alice Neel, Frida Kahlo, Diego Rivera, Joaquín Torres García, Lola Álvarez Bravo, Manuel Álvarez Bravo, David Alfaro Siquieros. El Museo Barrio reopened in October 2009. It had originally been created as an educational and cultural institution for Spanish American children to discover and learn about their background using Caribbean and Latin American art. Today, no matter what your background or ethnicity, the museum offers a piece of New York history that should not be missed.
El suicidio de Dorothy Hale - by Frida Kahlo
Dorothy Hale was a Ziegfeld showgirl turned actress and Manhattan socialite, joining the artistic circle in New York when she married Gardiner Hale, a mural artist. After her husband died in a car accident, she was no longer able to afford her high society lifestyle. On October 21, she threw a going away party at her apartment in the Hampshire House. After the guests left, she took the plunge. Frida Kahlo was asked by Dorothy's friend Clare Booth Luce to create a painting for Hale's mother (which Hale's mother vehemently rejected, outraged by how Frida depicted her daughter). "I could not have requested such a gory picture of my worst enemy, much less of my unfortunate friend," patron Luce's horrified responded.
On the bottom, Frida writes the facts: "In the city oft New York on the 21st day of the month of October, 1938, at six o'clock in the morning, Mrs. Dorothy Hale committed suicide by throwing herself out of a very high window of the Hampshire House building. In her memory [words apparently painted out] this 'retablo,' executed by Frida Kahlo."
14th Street - Joaquin Torres Garcia
My favorite collection was the works of Alice Neel and Carlos Enriquez. Alice Neel, from a middle class family in Pennsylvania, met Enriquez, son of a prominent Cuban family, at the Pennsylvania Academy of Art in 1924. She became entranced my his culture, rejecting all things American. The couple were married within two years. Their art reflects their happy times together and darkest. After their first child died, Neel became depressed. However, the saddest story is that of Isabetta. After they had a second child, Isabetta, the couple split in 1930. Enriquez returned to Cuba with their daughter, and both were never to be seen or heard from again. Neel fell into a dark period that would continue for the rest of her life, as reflected in her paintings. Her most haunting pictures are of her daughter - Isabetta - depicted as a creepy, dark, almost satanic child in all of her paintings.
Neel moved to Spanish Harlem in 1938 to flee the competitive art colony in Greenwich Village. Her art continued to be influenced by her relationship with Enriquez for her entire life.
