Chloe Aridjis's 'Portraits in Four Movements' Explores the Life of Mexican Artist Nahui Olin

Chloe Aridjis's new book 'Portraits in Four Movements' examines the turbulent life of Mexican painter and poet Nahui Olin (1894–1978). Born María del Carmen Mondragón, she was the daughter of an exiled general and spent her youth in France and Spain, encountering artists like Henri Matisse and Pablo Picasso. After returning to Mexico, she met Dr Atl, who gave her the name Nahui Olin, referencing the Four-Movement Sun in the Aztec calendar. Dr Atl, an artist and amateur volcanologist, used volcanic imagery as a metaphor for Olin's explosive personality during their five-year affair, attempting to capture her energy through portraits. Olin became known for her sexual freedom and legendary creative drive, posing for notable figures including Diego Rivera, Antonio Garduño, and Edward Weston in Mexico's Belle Époque avant-garde scene. Following the death of a later lover, a ship's captain in 1929, her life declined into poverty and obscurity until her death. Aridjis, known for novels with spectral themes, focuses on Olin's mythical aspects as depicted by the men in her life, though the book offers limited analysis of her own poems and paintings. Published by Juxta Press, the volume includes one of Dr Atl's portraits of Olin as an endnote.