Dolores Olmedo

María de los Dolores Olmedo y Patiño Suarez (December 14, 1908 – July 26, 2002; Mexico City) was a Mexican businesswoman, philanthropist and musician, better known for her friendship with Mexican painters Frida Kahlo and her husband Diego Rivera; she appeared on some of his paintings.[1] Following Rivera's death in 1957, she and Rivera's daughter Guadalupe asked then president Adolfo López Mateos to consider Rivera and José Clemente Orozco's paintings historical monuments.

Altar to Dolores Olmedo at the Dolores Olmedo Museum for Day of the Dead.

Museo Dolores Olmedo
Three Xoloitzcuintles at the museum.
Main article: Museo Dolores Olmedo

In 1962, she acquired a property at La Noria, Xochimilco in southern Mexico City, which she would later convert into a museum (named after herself) in 1994. Donating her entire collection of art including pre-Hispanic, colonial, folk, modern and contemporary art, the Dolores Olmedo Patiño Museum host the greatest collection of Frida Kahlo, Diego Rivera and Angelina Beloff. Upon her death in 2002, she left funds for taking care of her museum (Dolores Olmedo Museum in English), now open to the public.[2]

The five-building complex contains up to 150 paintings, including 145 Rivera's, 25 from Kahlo's (and some of their scripts and drawings), nearly 6,000 pre-Hispanic figurines and sculptures as well diverse living animals such as geese, ducks, six Xoloitzcuintles and Indian peafowls kept in gardens. Recently new areas have been added to the museum, "her private rooms" where she kept original decorations of her house such as ivory, china, and artwork by artist whom she nurtured in her latter years including José Juárez and Francisco Guevara.

Tribute

In 2018, a Google Doodle was created to celebrate her 110th Birthday.[3]

References
  1. Mi Héroe: Dolores Olmedo biography Archived 2007-08-22 at the Wayback Machine. (in Spanish)
  2. Museo Dolores Olmedo website.
  3. "Dolores Olmedo's 110th Birthday". www.google.com. Retrieved 2018-12-14.
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