Hungary, Frida Kahlo exhibition criticized and accused of making communist propaganda

An unbelievable accusation of political propaganda, and specifically communist propaganda, is being made in Hungary against the exhibition Frida Kahlo: Masterpieces from the Dolores Olmedo Museum currently running at the Magyar Nemzeti Galéria (Hungarian National Gallery) in Budapest.

A right-wing newspaper, Magyar IdÅ‘k (the same one that last June lashed out at the musical Billy Elliot, accused of making homosexual propaganda) pointed the finger at the affair Frida Kahlo had with Lev Trockij, a Bolshevik revolutionary who was exiled and then assassinated in Mexico in 1940. “You won’t believe it,” the paper’s pages read in an article titled Here’s how communism is propagandized with public money, “but Trockij came to Budapest again, this time from Frida Kahlo’s bed,” adding that if you have “nostalgia for the period of Lenin, Stalin and the Soviet Union, you can deepen your knowledge at the Institute of Political History [a major private Hungarian historical research institute, ed.] where there are Marxist historians who can provide solid scholarly research.”

But it does not end there: Magyar IdÅ‘k also lists a number of galleries and museums accused of promoting communism with public money, and the list of “proscribed” includes institutions such as the Knoll Galéria and the Ludwig Museum. Following the victory of right-wing premier Viktor Orbán in last April’s elections, several right-wing newspapers, writes the Reuters news agency, “are hoping for major changes at the cultural level as well, toward conservative values and an end to what they call ’the domination of left-wing liberal artists.’” The premier himself, in a speech last July 28, declared that “an era is determined by cultural trends, collective beliefs and social habits. This is now our goal: we must include the political system in a cultural era.” Reuters also reports statements by right-wing political analyst Tamas Fricz, who said that “the individual autonomy of institutions should be preserved, but I believe that the government has the right to strongly support and encourage conservative thoughts, works and artists.”

Meanwhile, the National Gallery provides no comment on the allegations, and several artists protest the government’s sights on culture. And the Frida Kahlo exhibition (which, moreover, was presented in similar form in Milan this year) continues to be a great success, drawing about 3,000 visitors a day.

Hungary, Frida Kahlo exhibition criticized and accused of making communist propaganda

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