The exhibition is divided into six sections. It begins with a look at Frida Kahlo’s family roots and the experiences of her formative years. Visitors are welcomed by photographs of the artist and her family taken by her father, Guillermo (Wilhelm) Kahlo, alongside a selection of her early sketches, including a drawing in which Kahlo visualizes her traumatic 1925 accident. They then continue to an introduction to the art and politics of the Mexican Revolution (1910–1920) — the backdrop of Kahlo’s childhood and adolescence—and the cultural renaissance that followed. Visitors see how Kahlo’s family heritage and formative years as well as the politics of her time influenced her self-made identity and launched her artistic journey.
From there visitors move into La Casa Azul (The Blue House), where Kahlo was born, lived for most of her life, and died. Her father built the house in 1904; Kahlo and Rivera renovated it before they moved in during the 1930s. Since Kahlo was often housebound due to her medical condition, she transformed her home into a microcosm of her beloved Mexico. She filled the home with diverse Mexican artworks, including folk art, ceramics, and votive paintings. She filled the courtyard with citrus trees, colorful flowers, archaeological statues, and a mélange of pets. La Casa Azul became a cultural hub, attracting luminaries from Mexico and abroad, and is yet another expression of Kahlo’s mexicanidad (Mexican-ness) and her brilliant creative power.
The exhibition then examines Kahlo’s two visits to San Francisco. Kahlo first traveled to “Gringolandia” (as she called the United States) in 1930, accompanying her husband Diego Rivera as he painted murals in San Francisco, New York, and Detroit. In San Francisco, Kahlo made lifelong friends, began to fashion her Tehuana style, and started to paint seriously. In 1940, Kahlo returned to San Francisco for medical treatment and to remarry Rivera, whom she had divorced the previous year. Here visitors have the opportunity to view several of Kahlo’s lesser-known works painted in San Francisco (all of which are still held in Bay Area collections): Portrait of Mrs. Jean Wight (1931, collection of Gretchen and John Berggruen); Portrait of Dr. Leo Eloesser (1931, UCSF School of Medicine Dean’s Office at Zuckerberg San Francisco General Hospital and Trauma Center); and Frieda and Diego Rivera (1931, San Francisco Museum of Modern Art).
Above, "Frida in Blue Dress, New York City," 1939. 12.6 x 9.4 inches (32 x 24 cm). The Hecksher Family Collection © Nickolas Muray Photo Archives
In the next section, visitors encounter a rare and intimate view of the artist. Here, Kahlo’s medicines, cosmetics, accessories, orthopedic devices, and hand-painted plaster corsets are displayed alongside photographs of the artist and her paintings and drawings. Visitors see how Kahlo constructed and deconstructed herself, concealing and revealing facets of her identity and appearance. This is lucidly displayed in the drawing Appearances Can Be Deceiving (ca. 1946, Banco de México Diego Rivera & Frida Kahlo Museums Trust), where Kahlo reveals that her Tehuana dress is camouflage for her injured body. Kahlo also used her art to express and explore her experiences with disability and pain while demonstrating her resilience and ability to create beauty, joy, and art until the end of her life.
The exhibition culminates in a final gallery about art and dress, in which visitors encounter Kahlo’s sartorial self-expression — her mesmerizing outfits — alongside her choice accessories and unparalleled iconic self-portrait paintings. Arresting paintings such as Self-Portrait (1948, private collection), in which Kahlo paints herself wearing a resplandor (a ceremonial headdress worn by the women of Tehuantepec on special occasions). The actual resplandor ensemble from Kahlo’s wardrobe is on view just feet away. In the Lucienne Bloch photograph Frida with Cinzano Bottle, New York (1935, Hecksher family collection), Kahlo is seen wearing a mottled bolero that she then paints herself wearing in the rarely seen Memory (The Heart) (1937, private collection). Along with the photograph and painting, the Tehuana dress she holds in her left hand is also on view nearby. The stunning Self-Portrait Dedicated to Dr. Leo Eloesser (1940) was painted after her remarriage to Rivera in San Francisco, for Eloesser, her doctor, best friend, and confidante.
About Frida Kahlo
The artist Frida Kahlo (Mexican, 1907–1954) is today an iconic figure, known as much for her path-breaking artwork as for her striking appearance. Kahlo began to paint while recovering from a near-fatal bus accident in 1925, which left her with lasting medical complications, disabilities, and chronic pain. In 1929, at 22, Kahlo married 43-year-old Mexican muralist Diego Rivera (1886–1957). Their union was unconventional and tumultuous — they divorced in 1939 and remarried thirteen months later in San Francisco. Throughout, they shared a deep devotion to art, to Mexico and its multifaceted cultures, and to revolutionary politics. Many of Kahlo’s approximately 200 paintings explore her complex identities and engage themes of disability, gender, and politics. Her paintings elude definition. Sometimes associated with Surrealism, Kahlo herself resisted that categorization, stating that her paintings were “the frankest expression of [her]self.” Upon her death in 1954, at the instruction of Rivera, many of her personal possessions were locked away in La Casa Azul — the home where she was born, lived most of her life, and died. Today, La Casa Azul, located in Coyoacán, Mexico City, houses the Museo Frida Kahlo, where in 2004 the remarkable trove of items that had been hidden away 50 years earlier came to light. Drawings, documents, accessories and Kahlo’s colorful self-fashioned outfits from La Casa Azul — along with select paintings by Kahlo and items from the Fine Arts Museum of San Francisco—form the heart of this exhibition.
Frida Kahlo Media Images // #FridaKahlo
Visiting de Young
Golden Gate Park, 50 Hagiwara Tea Garden Drive, San Francisco. Open 9:30 am–5:15 pm Tuesdays–Sundays. Open select holidays; closed most Mondays.
Ticketing
Information regarding tickets can be found at deyoung.famsf.org/frida-kahlo.
Programming
Local Voices
“Local Voices” is a new podcast series from the Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco, designed to celebrate art and Bay Area creativity. “Local Voices” highlights unique perspectives from Bay Area visual artists, musicians, scholars, community leaders, and thinkers aimed to reframe exhibitions and collections through relevant and local narratives. Through these diverse access points, we welcome the Bay Area community and beyond to engage in meaningful and inspiring narratives.
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