FRIDA KAHLO - A Life in Art

Frida Kahlo is one of the most striking artistic figures of the 20th century. She became a pioneer by incorporating herself in her art in a new, active way. With self-portraits and intimate depictions of her dramatic life, Kahlo challenges the boundary between oeuvre and biography, between art and everyday culture. Kahlo’s paintings are at once relentlessly self-revealing and profoundly theatrical. Her art has its origin in her personal experiences, but she also creates an identity for herself through her art, thus making art and life two sides of the same coin.

With paintings, drawings and collages, the FRIDA KAHLO - A Life in Art exhibition, at the ARKEN Museum of Modern Art, Copenhagen, September 7, 2013 to January 12, 2014, offers a close look at Kahlo's oeuvre, including a number of her iconic self-portraits. A section of the exhibition will illustrate how she had her portrait taken throughout life by some of the most prominent photographers of the time. In these she develops her public image as an exotic woman dressed in traditional Mexican costumes.

Kahlo’s self-aware appearance in paintings and photographs is part of a wider tendency where Mexico’s artists, in the time after the Mexican Revolution (1910-20) tried to break free of European influence and rediscover their own roots. The most prominent artist in this “Mexican Renaissance” was Kahlo’s husband Diego Rivera, who will be amply represented in the exhibition. The exhibition also sheds light on Kahlo’s place in this cultural movement with works by contemporary artists such as María Izquierdo, David Alfaro Siquieros, José Clemente Orozco and others.





Frida Kahlo, Self-portrait with Monkeys, 1943. The Vergel Foundation ©
2013 Banco de México Diego Rivera, Frida Kahlo Museums Trust, Mexico, D.F. / billedkunst.dk



Frida Kahlo, Self-portrait as Tehuana or Diego on My Mind, 1943.
The Vergel Foundation © 2013 Banco de México Diego Rivera, Frida Kahlo Museums Trust,
Mexico, D.F. / billedkunst.dk



Frida Kahlo, Self-portrait with Necklace, 1933. The Vergel Foundation ©
2013 Banco de México Diego Rivera, Frida Kahlo Museums Trust, Mexico, D.F. / billedkunst.dk



Frida Kahlo, Self-portrait on the bed or Me and My Doll, 1937. The Vergel Foundation
© 2013 Banco de México Diego Rivera, Frida Kahlo Museums Trust, Mexico, D.F. / billedkunst.dk



Frida Kahlo, The Bride Who Becomes Frightened When She Sees Life Opened, 1943.
The Vergel Foundation © 2013 Banco de México Diego Rivera,
Frida Kahlo Museums Trust, Mexico, D.F. / billedkunst.dk



Bernard Silberstein, Frida with Self-portrait while Diego Observes. The Vergel Foundation
© 2013 Banco de México Diego Rivera, Frida Kahlo Museums Trust, Mexico, D.F. / billedkunst.dk



Bernice Silberstein, Frida with flowers in her hair, ca. 1940. Photo: Throckmorton Fine Art



Lola Alvarez Bravo, Frida Kahlo with Dogs and Idol, 1944.
Photo: Throckmorton Fine Art