Treasure Island (San Francisco)

Artificial island in San Francisco Bay, built for the 1939–40 Golden Gate International Exposition. In Hayden Herrera’s Frida it is where Diego Rivera, in exile from Mexico, paints a mural in public as Frida and he reunite.

At a glance

Source	Author	Role	In one line
Frida	Hayden Herrera	setting	Rivera paints his pan-American mural in public at the Exposition, showing Frida’s lipstick on his undershirt after their remarriage.

Frida — Hayden Herrera (1983)

Source: Frida - A Biography of Frida Kahlo · Original · Readwise highlight

Rivera left Mexico from the Mexico City airport, and he went with a regular passport and with the promise of a commission to paint a mural for the library of San Francisco Junior College—to paint it, in fact, in public, at Treasure Island, as part of the Golden Gate International Exposition’s “Art in Action” show.

• Role: setting
• In the book: After the 1940 attack on Trotsky puts him under suspicion, Rivera leaves for San Francisco and paints his mural before the fair’s visitors. In it he and Paulette Goddard hold hands around a tree of life. After remarrying Frida in December 1940, he goes back to work and strips off his shirt to show an undershirt covered with her magenta lipstick.
• Why it matters: The fair is the public stage for Rivera’s exile and for the couple’s reunion. The mural’s composition shows the rift the remarriage was meant to mend.