New Frida Kahlo exhibition arrives at Bendigo Art Gallery
The discovery of Frida Kahlo’s personal items, locked away for 50 years in the Blue House, revealed much about her identity and artistry. For the first time, Australians will see a truly intimate portrait of the artist.
Most people will recognise an image of Frida Kahlo, even if they know little about her. One of Mexico’s greatest painters, she was a feminist who was politically assertive, experimented with gender identity and was openly bisexual – in the early part of the 20th century, no less! Her life was marked by tragedy, resilience and passion, making her more than deserving of her status as a cultural icon. Yet, with her face emblazoned on bags, T-shirts and coasters serving as a shortcut motif for anything related to Mexico, her true legacy is often lost.
Frida Kahlo: In her own image, an exhibition opening at the Bendigo Art Gallery this month, offers an intimate portrait of the artist as a woman. For the first time in Australia, it displays her personal belongings – clothing, make-up, accessories and medical items – discovered in 2004, 50 years after her death, on loan from the Museo Frida Kahlo in Mexico.
“Usually, Frida Kahlo has been approached from a biographical perspective or framed paintings perspective,” says curator Circe Henestrosa. “But this exhibition is through the lens of fashion and dress. It looks at the ways in which her experiences of disability, her ethnicity, political outlook and gender identity informed her life, art and style.”
Born in Mexico City in 1907 to a German father and Mexican mother, Kahlo grew up in the Blue House, where she later lived with her husband, the famous Mexican painter Diego Rivera, and where she died, aged 47, in 1954. Pain and perseverance were defining themes in her life. When she was six, she contracted polio, which left her right leg shorter than her left. Then, in 1925, at just 18, a near-fatal bus accident caused severe internal injuries that plagued her for the rest of her life. During her long recovery in bed, painting became her way of coping with both physical and emotional pain, marking the start of her extraordinary artistic journey but also the deterioration of her body.
Though much has been written about Kahlo since her death, the discovery of her personal items has shed new light on her private life and work, reframing discussions about her identity. Previously, some “victimisation discourses”, as Henestrosa puts it, suggested Kahlo’s distinctive fashion choices were solely used to hide her disabilities, implying a sense of shame. But the truth is more nuanced. Her carefully curated wardrobe, which included indigenous Mexican clothing, handpainted corsets and customised footwear, was a statement of self-acceptance, revealing how she deliberately crafted her image as a reflection of her personal experiences and the world around her.
Traditional colourful Tehuana dress, for example, conveyed her political beliefs, which emphasised pride in Mexican values and heritage, while also paying homage to her maternal roots. Her attire also helped her navigate her disabilities, the geometry of the Tehuana look – with its distinctive headpiece, short blouse, long skirt and colourful adornments – drawing attention from her waist up, away from her fragile body.
Visitors to the gallery have the opportunity to see these garments up close, as well as photographs, her handpainted medical corsets and the Revlon make-up she adored, including eyebrow pencil, blush, nail polishes and lipsticks, which she used to accentuate her features.
“All these different objects related to one another in that she used them in different modes of creative production to inform that construction of identity,” notes Henestrosa. In Frida Kahlo: In her own image, the connection between her self-fashioning, her performance in photography and her artwork are laid bare. “Frida used dressing up as a creative process and healing process,” affirms Henestrosa. “She didn’t allow her disability to define her, she defined who she was in her own terms.”
Frida Kahlo: In her own image is on at the Bendigo Art Gallery from March 15 to July 13
This story is from the March issue of Vogue Australia, on sale now.
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