Bridget Bate Tichenor - Death and Legacy

Death and Legacy

After her son Jeremy Chisholm's death in 1982, Tichenor had no contact with any of his family. At the time of Tichenor's death in the Daniel de Laborde-Noguez and Marie Aimée de Montalembert house on the Calle Tabasco in Mexico City in 1990, she chose to be exclusively with her close friends. Tichenor's mother Vera Bate Lombardi was a close friend of Comte Léon de Laborde, who was a fervent admirer of Coco Chanel in her youth and had introduced Lombardi to Chanel. Comte Léon de Laborde's grandson, economist Carlos de Laborde-Noguez, his wife Marina Lascaris, his brother Daniel de Laborde-Noguez and his wife, Marie Aimée de Motalembert became Tichenor's most respected allies, trusted friends, and caretakers at the end of her life in their home in Mexico City. There were no living family members with her at the time of her death, nor were any relatives included in the last will and testament of her estate.

Tichenor was the subject of a 1985 documentary titled Rara Avis, shot in Baron Alexander von Wuthenau's home in Mexico City. It was directed by Tufic Makhlouf and focused on Tichenor’s life in Europe, her being a subject for the photographers Man Ray, Cecil Beaton, Irving Penn, John Rawlings, George Platt Lynes, her career as a Vogue fashion editor in New York with Condé Nast art director Alexander Liberman between 1945 and 1952, and her magic realism painting career in Mexico that began in 1956. The title of the film, Rara Avis, is a Latin expression that comes from the Roman poet Juvenal meaning a rare and unique bird, the "black swan." Rara Avis was screened at the 2008 FICM Morelia international film festival.

The first biographical glimpse into the artistic character of Tichenor from a 20 year personal perspective was published in 2010 by her protégé Zachary Selig, The First Biography of the Life of Bridget Bate Tichenor. Artist Pedro Friedeberg wrote about Tichenor and their life in Mexico in his 2011 book of memoirs De Vacaciones Por La Vida (Holiday For Life), including stories of her interaction with his friends and contemporaries Salvador Dalí, Zachary Selig, Leonora Carrington, Kati Horna, Tamara de Lempicka and Edward James.