Ceramics - Kahlo/Rivera House - Casa Azul

Diego Rivera and Frida Kahlo’s House-Studio is one of the most important cultural landmarks in Mexico City, for being the place of residence and work of two of the most important artists in the 20^th Century, Diego Rivera and Frida Kahlo, as well as for being the first construction of the modern movement built in the American continent.

This construction, built in 1931 by the architect Juan O’Gorman, represented the breaking of every aesthetic paradigm in Mexican architecture up to that time, strongly incorporating the most forward theories and thoughts which architects like Le Corbusier were developing simultaneously in Europe. Thoughts like the rational use of materials, the analysis of each space’s function and the adjustment of each space to the activities that took place within it; ideas that were radical in the beginning but that, with time, were taken in by architecture all around the world.

This building was designed and constructed based upon the 5 points proposed by Le Corbusier: structure supported by pilotis, open floor plan, free façade, roof garden (to compensate the green area consumed by the building) and long strips of windows; but it’s also a Mexican house with strong colours, textured floors and a cactus fence. It’s an honest house that shows us its steel skeleton, its pipes, its staircases, its economic materials; it’s a house that could be in any town, not afraid of letting us know it’s a factory, a machine for living, an art machine in which Diego and Frida produced an aesthetic world nurtured by Mexico, its history, its people, its problems and its biggest dreams.

This interesting space is composed by two blocks or main houses, a red one that represents Diego Rivera and a blue one, Frida Kahlo, both joined by a bridge, a bond of passion between them. Within them we can see their bedrooms, their workshops and other spaces that have been visited by characters like André Bretón, María Félix, Pablo Neruda, Dolores Del Río, Nelson Rockefeller and Lázaro Cárdenas, among others.

Since 1986 this House-Studio has been open to the public, showing how these two artists used to live and work. It’s a must-see place for art and architecture lovers who are visiting the city.