Milagros are honoured to be collaborating with Tate Modern to provide merchandise for the exhibition Frida: The Making of an Icon. Particularly supplying handcrafted items from small workshops, across Mexico. Tate commerce placed their orders based largely on the work that they had seen in Milagros on Columbia Road.
To be able to do this, Tom and Emile travelled to many parts of Mexico over six weeks this spring. They called in on a number of makers that we’ve worked with for decades as well as searching out some new artisans.
Frida Kahlo and Diego Rivera were avid collectors of both Mexican folk art and pre Columbian artefacts. Much of present day Mexico's distinctive visual culture emerged from the syncretism between Spanish Catholicism and pre-Hispanic Meso American beliefs. Over the past five centuries, these two traditions have merged to create the rich, idiosyncratic aesthetic and cultural identity that is evident in the work of artists such as Kahlo and Rivera helping to define modern perceptions of Mexican art and culture, “mexicanidad”. Craft skills and aesthetic traditions can be traced back through many centuries.
The objects we sourced for Tate Modern embody this same cultural dialogue. Their forms, materials, and symbolism reflect the mergence of Indigenous and European traditions, conveying Mexican identity. Through this collection, visitors to Frida: The Making of an Icon are able to engage not only with Kahlo's paintings but also to buy contemporary Mexican craft work which continues to express the country's unique cultural heritage.
