¡Que Viva Frida!
An exhibit at the Brooklyn Museum traces how and why the Mexican artist crafted her own image and artistic practice in ways that challenged long-held assumptions on gender, sexuality, and identity.
Written by Bruna Shapira
Sixty-five years after her passing, Mexican artist Frida Kahlo is everywhere. From tattoos, Barbie dolls, Carnival and Halloween customs to an Instagram account with nearly a million subscribers, she has became a pop culture icon. Just to use a word recently incorporated to our vernacular, the painter was an Influencer much before the term even existed. Frida came to define herself through her ethnicity, disability, and politics, all of which were at the core of her work and her identity. Now, a show at the Brooklyn Museum explores the ways she carefully built the persona that lasts to this day. Frida Kahlo: Appearances Can Be Deceiving is the largest United States exhibition in ten years devoted to the painter and the first in the US to display a collection of her clothing and other personal belongings.
The exhibit looks at her story along several pivotal themes, illustrated by each room we walk through. The room “Art and Revolution” displays her lifelong belief in communism; “Disability and Creativity” chronicles how she struggled with injuries from a traffic accident and polio; “The Blue House,” a bright blue-colored room in homage to her longtime Mexico City home, filled with folk art; and “Gringolandia,” documenting her time in the United States, from 1930 to 1934. The show is based on previous iterations at the Frida Kahlo Museum (2012) and the V&A London (2018), but this version deepens them with interesting additions: sculptures from the Brooklyn Museum’s extensive holdings of Mesoamerican art were included, to highlight the collecting interests of Kahlo and her husband, muralist Diego Rivera. The labels and wall texts are bilingual (English/Spanish), an evidence that the institution is committed to be an inclusive space within the museum landscape in the city.
As its other iterations, the show is not an exhibition of the Mexican artist’s work, but rather a review of her life through her personal belongings. More than 350 objects, including clothing and jewelry, are displayed – only 11 are paintings, which may be frustrating for those interested in delving into Frida’s legacy beyond her ubiquitous personal brand. Paintings include self-portraits and Fruits of the Earth, a still-life that makes an allusion to the cyclical nature of life and death, and that was included at her first solo show in NYC. There are also drawings, photographs, and related historical film including a beautiful sequence shot from “¡Que Viva México!” by the couple’s friend Sergei Eisenstein. The other possessions range from examples of Tehuana clothing, contemporary and pre-Colonial jewelry, and hand-painted orthopedic corsets she worn to straighten her spine during her lifetime. Cosmetics, also on view, reveal Frida carefully groomed her “unibrow”, a intentional choice conceived to not conform to Hollywood beauty standards. Frida also enjoyed lipsticks, and often kissed letters and photographs, leaving red imprints.
Frida Kahlo’s traditional embroidered dress A hand-painted orthopedic corset worn to straighten spine A photograph from the 1940s shows the artist at home
Offering an intimate glimpse into the artist’s life, these objects show how she carefully shaped her personal and public identity. However, they also leave us with some interrogation marks: Would clothes and personal possessions ever be included in a museum survey of a male painter’s work? Does focusing on a woman’s clothes and makeup belittle her achievements as a creative force? While these questions are open to debate, the show argues that the relics on view are essential to Frida’s accomplishments since they address and incorporate her cultural heritage, political beliefs, and physical disabilities.
The exhibit also explores Frida’s time in the US and her ambivalent feelings about New York, in particular. Here, she had a pivotal time, which included her 1983 first solo appearance in the city, at the Julien Levy Gallery, the influential art space in Midtown that focused in displaying burgeoning Surrealist artists. Echoing the experience of thousands of newcomers, Frida was at once amazed and skeptical of the US. When she first arrived, in 1931, she compared New York to Babylon, writing: “Everything here is mere appearance.” Shocked by the contrasts of wealth and poverty, Frida remained committed to communism and to Mexico during her time in New York. Still, she found herself drawn to NYC, once noting that “it is hard to believe the city was built by humans, it appears like magic.”
Frida Kahlo: Appearances Can Be Deceiving
Through May 12 at the Brooklyn Museum
200 Eastern Parkway; 718-638-5000
Admission: Untimed ticket (ages 4+):$35; Timed ticket: $20 & up.
To buy tickets, click here.
