Dolores Olmedo’s 110th Birthday

Today’s Doodle celebrates the life and legacy of Dolores Olmedo, a close friend of Diego Rivera and owner of the world’s most important private collection of the modernist master’s work—as well as several xoloitzcuintles, the Mexican hairless dogs she adored. Olmedo also acquired many paintings by Rivera’s wife, Frida Kahlo, and donated her collection to the people of Mexico, where it is displayed in her former home. “I lived with this art for most of my life,'' she said. “Who knows better than me how it should be displayed?”

Born in Mexico City on this day in 1913, Dolores Olmedo was 17 years old when she visited the Ministry of Education with her mother, who worked as a schoolteacher. On the elevator, they bumped into Rivera, who was painting murals in the building. He asked Olmedo’s mother if he could make some sketches of her. The artist completed 27 sketches of Olmedo and established a lifelong connection.
During the 1940s, Olmedo—also known as Doña Lola—went on to become a successful real estate developer, one of the first Mexican women to excel in the field. During Rivera’s final years in the  1950s, he moved into Olmedo’s estate in Xochimilco, a neighborhood in the southern part of Mexico City. The artist sold her dozens of his own paintings and drawings, as well as 25 paintings by Kahlo, in hopes that the work would remain in their homeland. OImedo also oversaw both artists’ estates.

The Museo Dolores Olmedo opened in September 1994, inside her sixteenth-century stone residence, formerly known as the Hacienda La Noria. The museum is also a centerpoint for Day of the Dead celebrations as Olmedo would often organize an ofrenda, or altar, in honor of Diego Rivera. The museum’s collection includes a wide range of Rivera’s works over the many decades of his career as well as the world’s largest collection of Kahlo paintings and illustrations by Angelina Beloff, who worked with Rivera in Europe during the early 20th century. The work is displayed in an intimate setting, amidst Olmedo’s personal furnishings and peacocks strolling through gardens. ''I will always defend his work energetically,'' she wrote about Rivera in her museum's catalog, and she has stood by her word.
 
Feliz cumpleaños, Doña Lola!

Doodle by Sophie Diao