Autorretrato en la casa de Trotsky, Coyoacán, México
Artist name
Artist year born
1942
Artwork make date
2006
Artwork title translation
Self-Portrait at Trotsky's House, Coyoacán, Mexico
Artwork material
silver gelatin
paper
paper
Artwork dimensions
height: 17.7cm
width: 17.7cm
width: 17.7cm
Artwork type (categories)
Photograph
Accession method
Purchased with the assistance of the Art Fund and the PINTA Museums Acquisitions Programme 2011-2012
Accession number
3-2012
Label text
This self-portrait, of Iturbide’s shadow, also shows bullet holes in the walls of the house on Vienna Street in Coyoacán where, from 1938 to 1940, Leon Trotsky lived in exile with his wife Natalia Sedova. Having been granted asylum by Mexico’s president, at Diego Rivera’s request, the couple lived for two years with the muralist and Frida Kahlo at The Blue House but, following an affair between Kahlo and Trotsky, Trotsky and Sedova moved to Vienna Street. In 1940, despite heavy protection, another of the muralists David Álfaro Siqueiros and other Stalinists, all dressed as policemen, entered the courtyard and fired machine gun rounds, injuring Trotsky’s grandson. This unsuccessful attempt on Trotsky’s life was followed in the same year by his murder with an ice-pick on Stalin’s orders by Ramon Mercader, a Spanish-born agent for the Soviet secret police.
(Display caption from the exhibition Mexican Migrations, 2013)
(Display caption from the exhibition Mexican Migrations, 2013)