Inside The Frida Kahlo Exhibit That Has Everyone Talking

The current Brooklyn Museum exhibition, Frida Kahlo: Appearances Can Be Deceiving, is nothing short of a provocative, thorough, haunting collection that is a sublime effort in capturing and providing an exquisite look into the life and work of artist Frida Kahlo. It is a fitting time that this exhibit should come to life now given the current cultural emphasis on women. However, what makes this collection so special is that it not only offers a rare look at the artist's work but also a look at her lifestyle, values and being which was a work of art itself.

This exhibit expertly takes the viewer from Kahlo's birth to death in a series of three rooms where we learn about her relationship with her nuclear family, her commitment to Communism, her relationship with Diego Rivera and their home, which essentially served almost a living museum.  But it is the fascinating look at how Kahlo dealt with her recovery from by not only polio but being hit by a bus which is fascinating. The manner in which she used ancestral dress to not only camouflage the medical tools that helped her to stand but also served as artistic expression of very being. 

Frida Kahlo (Mexican, 1907–1954). Self-Portrait with Red and Gold Dress (Self-Portrait MCMXLI), 1941. Oil on canvas, 15 ¼ x 10 ¾ in. (39 x 27.5 cm). The Jacques and Natasha Gelman Collection of 20th Century Mexican Art and the Vergel Foundation. © 2018 Banco de México Diego Rivera Frida Kahlo Museums Trust, Mexico, D.F. / Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York

 

To view her collection of shawls, jewelry and even plaster casts that at many times enveloped her entire torso is somehow very haunting and yet truly inspiring. Even her ability to take her casts and use them as quasi-canvases is astounding, not only for the artistic application for the psychological view that enabled such action. This is about seeing an artist via her own words in letters obtained by the museum, rare video footage and much more.

 

Guillermo Kahlo, Frida Kahlo, c.1926. Silver gelatin print, 6 ¾ x 4 ¾ in. (17.2 x 12.2 cm). Frida Kahlo & Diego Rivera Archives. Bank of Mexico, Fiduciary in the Diego Rivera and Frida Kahlo Museum Trust

But what is equally interesting in an era where the term diversity and inclusion is now synonymous with nearly every conversation is the way in which we are privvy to seeing how the mainstream press both at many times discounted her for not only her gender but her ethnic background in a bold and entitled manner from which many are not that far from being subject still today.  

A truly perfect way to spend the afternoon, Frida Kahlo: Appearances Can Be Deceiving  is a triumph on many levels and speaks to the luxury of life as defined by living it in a manner which is authentic and unapologetic.

The installation is based on exhibitions at the Frida Kahlo Museum (2012), curated by Circe Henestrosa; and the V&A London (2018), curated by Claire Wilcox and Circe Henestrosa, with Gannit Ankori as curatorial advisor.  Frida Kahlo is at The Brooklyn Museum now until May 12, 2019. For more information and tickets, please visit the Museum site for complete information.