Standing in front of Landscape with Cacti, a massive landscape oil painting that muralist Diego Rivera painted in 1931, feels like standing with friends in happy company—if your friends happen to be five-feet-tall cacti on canvas. They meander over a sunny hill, prickly arms open in greeting.
I found refuge in this golden-yellow landscape as a balm against the past two years of pandemic and necessary social distancing. It has not been easy to step back inside a museum. However the Portland Art Museum (PAM)’s new show, Frida Kahlo, Diego Rivera, and Mexican Modernism feels well managed and mercifully spacious.
Due to a system of time slot visitation windows, there’s no crowding. And while we all surely miss museum snacks, that means there’s no reason to drop mask and pretend dining indoors makes sense.
There is both optimism and mystery in the sparingly-told exhibition of Mexican Modernism. The art is lucid, yet stories loom between descriptions. This exhibition is a great jumping off point to the extensive history hinted at on their walls.