Madonna
What's up with the material girl?
Michael Hodges of The Detroit News writes that Madonna, a native of Metro Detroit, won't loan the Detroit Institute of Arts a seminal painting, Frida Kahlo's "My Birth," for the DIA's upcoming exhibition, "Diego Rivera and Frida Kahlo in Detroit." The exhibit opens March 15.
Hayden Herrera, who wrote the definitive biography of Kahlo, called the painting's absence from the show "a huge omission."
"My Birth" is one of five paintings Kahlo completed in Detroit, of which the DIA secured three. Like Kahlo's "Henry Ford Hospital," which will be in the show, "My Birth" represents a turning point in the young artist's career, when she began using her own body and experience as subject matter, often to shocking effect.
"We tried to get it," said Mark Rosenthal, DIA adjunct curator for contemporary art who organized the show. "You have no idea what we went through. But I can't describe all that."
Madonna's mouthpiece told the News via email: "We will not be commenting on this."
