The Aztec sun stone is the largest stone carving ever discovered.
It celebrates the birth of the Aztec empire and the creation of a new cosmic era.
The sculpture located in the National Museum of Anthropology in Mexico City, is made of basalt, measures 3.8 meters (12 feet) in diameter, is 1.22 meters (4 feet) deep and weighs 24 tons.
As of Friday October 26th 2012, this extraordinary representation of the birth of the Aztec empire can be seen in the Frida Kahlo exhibition "Viva La Vida", reproduced in its original size and color.

The sun stone was probably originated during the empire of the Aztec Emperor Moctezuma between 1502 and the conquest of Mexico in 1521.
After the defeat of the Aztecs, the Spaniards tried to destroy the Aztec temples and monuments, for some reason the sun stone was spared.
At the time of the Spanish conquest of Mexico the stone was laid on the ground in front of the cathedral so that people would disrespectfully walk on it.
At the end of the 1550s the stone was buried one meter (3 feet) below the ground with the chiseled face down. The stone was discovered on December 17th 1790 as the Cathedral in Mexico City was restored. In 1964, the Sun Stone was transferred to the Museo Nacional de Antropología. The transport happened at night through the streets of Mexico City and caused great interest among the population who went to see the transport in great numbers.

Many questions surround the Sunstone:
Was the sun stone is a memorial stone? Cosmic clock? A jubilee wheel? Can it be "read" as a book? Was it a calendar? The answer is: YES!
The Sunstone is all these things and more.
Some claim that the Sun Stone not only contains the complex calendar cycles of the Sun, Moon and Venus, but also a pre-Columbian reference to the end of an "era" in December 2012.
The Nahua, the largest indigenous ethnic group in Mexico believe that the Aztec, with the Sun Stone, showed us the footsteps which bring us to the present: the fifth age. Now it's up to us to define how we want to live the sixth era, which will begin on December 22nd 2012.
Artifacts from the pre-Columbian period had a profound influence on Frida Kahlo's paintings. They were everywhere in the Kahlo / Rivera Blue House.
Diego Rivera collected Maya and Aztec sculptures and Frida Kahlo collected jewelry from that period.
Under the influence of Diego Rivera, Frida Kahlo wore predominantly traditional Mexican dresses and pre-Columbian jewelry, which Diego Rivera gave her. The jewelry and the Mexican dresses as well as photographs can be seen in numerous exhibits in the Frida Kahlo exhibition in Baden-Baden.

As of Friday October 26th a reproduction of the Sunstone in real size can be seen in the exhbition in addition to more than 500 exhibits (Frida Kahlo paintings as replicas, photographs, dresses, jewelry, Mayan Aztec artifacts, Mexican votive paintings, furniture of the time of Frida Kahlo and Diego Rivera).
A very detailed explanation and interpretation of the Sunstone and its cosmic significance in relation to December 21st 2012 is available in the exhibition.
The sun stone will remain in the exhibition till January 6th 2013.

The Kunstmuseum Gehrke-Remund is a privately owned monographic art museum founded in 2008. The Kunstmuseum exhibits only the works of Frida Kahlo.
The paintings are hand painted licensed replicas authorized by © Banco de México Diego Rivera & Frida Kahlo Museums Trust / VG Bild-Kunst, Bonn 2008.

The objective of the Kunstmuseum Gehrke-Remund is to offer the visitors a complete view of the entire work of the Mexican artist, thus allowing to follow Kahlo’s development, to discover the different phases she goes through in her life: from the very early works to her maturity.
The Vision of the Kunstmuseum Gehrke-Remund is to offer the visitors a unique cultural experience that covers all the senses, and an environment that touches not only the eyes of the visitors, but their minds, and above all their hearts.
Every decision made in the creation of the museum was driven by two elements:
respect for the visitors and respect for the artists.

In addition to exhibit the artworks, the Kunstmuseum Gehrke-Remund shows the cultural and historical environment of Frida Kahlo’s life and times in Mexico: Tehuana Huipiles (blouses) and dresses, jewelry, pre-columbian scupltures, Mexican votive paintings and the entire context in which the artist lived and produced her work. This 360°view of Kahlo’s life and work allows the visitors to totally immerse themselves into the artworks and to better understand the artist and the Mexican history and culture.

The founders of the Art Museum are Hans-Jürgen Gehrke and Prof. Dr. Mariella C. Remund. Both are art patrons, collectors, and passionate art historians.
They have spent over 25 years in executive positions in multinational corporations and academic organizations in Germany, Italy, France, Switzerland, USA, Spain, Mexico, South America and China.

Kunstmuseum Gehrke-Remund GmbH
Industrie Strasse 9a
76532 Baden-Baden, Germany
Tel #: +49 7221 97 11899
Press contact person: Dr. Mariella C. Remund
Info(at)FridaKahlo.Mu

This release was published on openPR.