Fanny Rabel

Fanny Rabel (Poland, August 27, 1922 - Mexico City, November 25, 2008), born Fanny Rabinovich, was a Mexican painter, also known as "La Fanny de los Fridos".

Her family moved to Mexico City in 1938 to escape the Second World War. She studied at the Escuela Nocturna para Trabajadores and then the Escuela Nacional de Pintura, Escultura y Grabado "La Esmeralda" from 1940 to 1945. Her first exhibition was held at the Liga Popular Israelita in 1941 where Frida Kahlo, her teacher at the time wrote of her:

"Fanny Rabinovich paints as she lives, with great courage, intelligence and sensibility, with all the love and joy that her 20 years bring her (though she was really 23). But what I find most interesting in her painting is the profound roots that link the tradition and strength of her people (jews). It's not a personal style, but rather socialist. She's worried about the class problems and has observed with incredible maturity the character and style of her models, giving them always a particular lively emotions. All of this without pretentiousness and full of femininity and class that make her work so complete."

Fanny Rabel worked as a muralist with Diego Rivera and David Alfaro Siqueiros helping them with great projects such as the Palacio Nacional and the murals at the Sindicato de Electricistas. Other of her famous teachers were Santos Balmori, Feliciano Peña, Carlos Orozco Romero, Frida Kahlo and Francisco Zúñiga. She was a founding member of the Salón de la Plástica Mexicana and the Taller de Gráfica Popular. The Universidad Autónoma Metropolitana organized the last exhibition during her life in March 2007 with a complete retrospective of her work curated by Elena Segurajaúregui. She died on Tuesday, November 25, 2008 in Mexico City and was buried at the Panteon Israelita.

Fanny Rabel was considered one of the four Fridos along with Arturo Estrada, Arturo Garcia Bustos and Guillermo Monroy.

References

• Artspawn. "Biography of Fanny Rabel", Biographical information about Fanny Rabel on Artspawn.