Iraq News Now

Frida Kahlo with her head wrapped in bandages. Diego Rivera

posing with a gas mask. Miguel Covarrubias at the beach.

The photographs of the three Mexican painters and other

works by Nickolas Muray, many of them never seen before, are going on sale this

week in New York.

The images, dating from around 1925 to 1946, are among 78

portraits by the renowned Hungarian-born American photographer, who had a decade-long

affair with Kahlo after meeting her in 1931. They will be auctioned Friday as

part of Sotheby’s “Photographs” sale, each with a starting price of $15,000.

“It is the first time that such a large group of photographs

by this artist, by Nickolas Muray, go on sale,” Sotheby’s specialist Aimee

Pflieger told The Associated Press in a recent interview.

The anonymous consigner originally bought them from the

photographer’s estate, according to the auction house.

Muray met Kahlo and Rivera through Covarrubias, whom he

befriended while working for Vanity Fair, where Covarrubias served as a

cartoonist. They later introduced him to other prominent figures of the arts.

There are at least 20 photographs of Kahlo, Rivera or both

of them together.

Pflieger noted that the collection “doesn’t necessarily show

the progression of the relationship between Frida and Nickolas, but it does

show this incredibly wide range of people that were involved in their circle.”

Portraits of composer Carlos Chávez, muralist Roberto

Montenegro and actress Margo Albert are some examples.

Many photos of Kahlo shot by Muray have become iconic, like

one from 1939 in which the painter appears with her hair braided through with

purple yarn and wrapped around her head in a sort of crown while a deep magenta

shawl drapes her shoulders. Some are currently on display at the Brooklyn

Museum, as part of “Frida Kahlo: Appearances Can Be Deceiving.”

But Pflieger said the ones in the sale are much more intimate.

The collection can be seen at the auction house in New York

or online, at www.sothebys.com.