The Real Frida Kahlo

A new exhibition offers insights into the Mexican painter's private life

  • By Julia Kaganskiy
  • Smithsonian.com, September 01, 2007, Subscribe
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Frida Kahlo Public Image Private Life
An exhibition at the National Museum for Women in the Arts (NMWA), "Frida Kahlo: Public Image, Private Life. A Selection of Photographs and Letters," examines the dichotomy between Kahlo's self-cultivated public persona and the grim realities of her life. (Frida Kahlo with Idol #11, Coyoacán, Mexico, ca. 1940)

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An exhibition at the National Museum for Women in the Arts (NMWA), "Frida Kahlo: Public Image, Private Life. A Selection of Photographs and Letters," examines the dichotomy between Kahlo

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Mexican painter Frida Kahlo is remembered today for her personal struggle and extraordinary life story as much as for her vibrant and intimate artwork. Kahlo was plagued by illness since youth and a bus accident at age 18 smashed her spinal column and fractured her pelvis, confining her to bed for months and leaving her with lifelong complications.

Though she had never planned on becoming an artist and was pursuing a medical career at the time of her accident, Kahlo found painting a natural solace during her recovery. It would become an almost therapeutic practice that would aid her in overcoming physical pain as well as the emotional pain of a turbulent marriage with muralist Diego Rivera and, years later, several miscarriages and abortions.

Despite the candidness of her work, Kahlo always maintained an image of poise, strength and even defiance in her public life. An exhibition at the National Museum for Women in the Arts (NMWA), "Frida Kahlo: Public Image, Private Life. A Selection of Photographs and Letters," on display through October 14, examines the dichotomy between Kahlo's self-cultivated public persona and the grim realities of her life. Commemorating Kahlo's 100th birthday, the exhibit is a collaboration between the NMWA, the Smithsonian Latino Center and the Mexican Cultural Institute.

The exhibit was inspired by the NMWA's recently acquired collection of Kahlo's unpublished letters to family and friends from the 1930s and 1940s, most of which document the four years Kahlo and Rivera spent living in the United States. The letters offer a glimpse into Kahlo's thoughts, her impressions of new and exotic places and her relationships with loved ones.

"She would pour her heart out into these letters," says Henry Estrada, public programs director at the Smithsonian Latino Center, who coordinated the translation of the letters. "She would do everything to convey these new experiences of San Francisco or New York. She would actually draw pictures of the apartment she was staying in and describe the beaches on the west coast. She would say things like 'mil besos,' which means 'a thousand kisses,' and kiss the letters."

The letters, which are accompanied by a selection of iconic Kahlo photographs by renowned photographers such as Lola Alvarez Bravo and Nickolas Murray and never-before-seen photographs of Kahlo's private bathroom at the Casa Azul in Coyoacàn, Mexico, act as a bridge between the images of the stylized mexicanista decked in traditional Tehuantepec dresses and pre-Columbian jewelry and those of medical supplies and corsets that underscored Kahlo's troubled existence.

But why would an artist who is so explicit in her artwork take pains to construct a public image that seems to mask her private life? "I think when she was in front of the camera she felt very different than when she was in front of the canvas, and she expressed something different," says Jason Stieber of the NMWA, co-curator of the exhibition. "She expressed her glamour, her Mexican heritage, her Communist leanings. She was expressing her strength, whereas in her paintings she's expressing her pain."

More than just a link between the two sides of Kahlo's persona, the letters may also offer significant new information for Kahlo scholars. Though biographers often depict Kahlo's relationship with her mother as strained and conflicted, the letters show remarkable tenderness and affection between mother and daughter and may prompt scholars to re-evaluate the way they look at her mother's impact on Kahlo's life and work.


Mexican painter Frida Kahlo is remembered today for her personal struggle and extraordinary life story as much as for her vibrant and intimate artwork. Kahlo was plagued by illness since youth and a bus accident at age 18 smashed her spinal column and fractured her pelvis, confining her to bed for months and leaving her with lifelong complications.

Though she had never planned on becoming an artist and was pursuing a medical career at the time of her accident, Kahlo found painting a natural solace during her recovery. It would become an almost therapeutic practice that would aid her in overcoming physical pain as well as the emotional pain of a turbulent marriage with muralist Diego Rivera and, years later, several miscarriages and abortions.

Despite the candidness of her work, Kahlo always maintained an image of poise, strength and even defiance in her public life. An exhibition at the National Museum for Women in the Arts (NMWA), "Frida Kahlo: Public Image, Private Life. A Selection of Photographs and Letters," on display through October 14, examines the dichotomy between Kahlo's self-cultivated public persona and the grim realities of her life. Commemorating Kahlo's 100th birthday, the exhibit is a collaboration between the NMWA, the Smithsonian Latino Center and the Mexican Cultural Institute.

The exhibit was inspired by the NMWA's recently acquired collection of Kahlo's unpublished letters to family and friends from the 1930s and 1940s, most of which document the four years Kahlo and Rivera spent living in the United States. The letters offer a glimpse into Kahlo's thoughts, her impressions of new and exotic places and her relationships with loved ones.

"She would pour her heart out into these letters," says Henry Estrada, public programs director at the Smithsonian Latino Center, who coordinated the translation of the letters. "She would do everything to convey these new experiences of San Francisco or New York. She would actually draw pictures of the apartment she was staying in and describe the beaches on the west coast. She would say things like 'mil besos,' which means 'a thousand kisses,' and kiss the letters."

The letters, which are accompanied by a selection of iconic Kahlo photographs by renowned photographers such as Lola Alvarez Bravo and Nickolas Murray and never-before-seen photographs of Kahlo's private bathroom at the Casa Azul in Coyoacàn, Mexico, act as a bridge between the images of the stylized mexicanista decked in traditional Tehuantepec dresses and pre-Columbian jewelry and those of medical supplies and corsets that underscored Kahlo's troubled existence.

But why would an artist who is so explicit in her artwork take pains to construct a public image that seems to mask her private life? "I think when she was in front of the camera she felt very different than when she was in front of the canvas, and she expressed something different," says Jason Stieber of the NMWA, co-curator of the exhibition. "She expressed her glamour, her Mexican heritage, her Communist leanings. She was expressing her strength, whereas in her paintings she's expressing her pain."

More than just a link between the two sides of Kahlo's persona, the letters may also offer significant new information for Kahlo scholars. Though biographers often depict Kahlo's relationship with her mother as strained and conflicted, the letters show remarkable tenderness and affection between mother and daughter and may prompt scholars to re-evaluate the way they look at her mother's impact on Kahlo's life and work.

"People credit her father with the fact that she was as strong a woman as she was, but it’s possible that her mother was also in large part responsible for that," Stieber says. "Her mother ran the household."

The letters track a particularly emotional time in Kahlo's relationship with her mother, as they coincide with her mother's declining health. Stieber believes the NMWA collection has the last letter Kahlo's mother ever wrote to her, where she describes how wonderful it had been to talk on the telephone—the first time she had spoken on the phone in her life.

Regardless of the problems Kahlo may have been facing, her letters reveal a love of life that never faltered. "The thing that really struck me was how much this artist enjoyed life and lived life to the fullest," Estrada says. "She was just vivacious and articulate and engaged with her environment, with people, with lovers, with friends, with family. She communicated and she did so with passion in her heart, not just in her artwork, but in her relationships with people."

Julia Kaganskiy is a freelance writer in Boston, Massachusetts.


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Comments (11)

I read "House on the Bridge: Ten Turbulent Years with Diego Rivera" and I recommend it. Her descriptions of Mexico as well as Paris are lyrical. A must read.

Posted by Elise on May 24,2009 | 06:41 PM

Appreciation for Frida Kahlo when I was a student in Mexico City and visited her blue house in the lovely neighborhood of Coyoacan led me to her studio in San Angel where I discovered a book about Diego Rivera's first wife, Angeline Beloff. "Memorias" tells of her years struggling to produce art and make a living in Paris while caring for the quixotic Rivera. That memoir inspired the newly released work: "House on the Bridge: Ten Turbulent Years with Diego Rivera" Given 4 stars by Top Amazon Reviewer Luan Gaines

Posted by sharon upp on March 25,2009 | 11:30 AM

I am bemused by Mrs. Rivera's noteriety. My daughter's math book mentions her along with Rembrandt, Van Gogh and Goya. Do they actually mean to intimate she had an equivalent talent? No, of course not. Did she have equivalent fame (a very different quality)? Perhaps, if feminism succeeds is pushing and hauling her thin accomplishments in to the limelight.

Posted by Poppa150 on January 30,2009 | 05:54 PM

I am also writing an essay on her for my comp class. She is such an inspiration.

Posted by Hallye on November 2,2008 | 02:14 PM

frida kahlo was a very talented artist who has inspired me to do a feature artical on her in my art class fo my art assignment

Posted by Samantha on October 12,2008 | 06:24 AM

I'm also doing an essay on her. It's true, her life was not easy. I could say she had an even more difficult life than someone born into poverty... she sounds like a very strong willed woman.

Posted by Iriana on September 28,2008 | 10:14 AM

I am about to finish a book on Frida, based in the private comments that Diego Rivera was telling to an uncle of mine, who was a close friend of Diego, from 1929 to 1957, year of Diego´s death. He was also a painter and sculptor, from the same Art School in México City. Of course this story relates the intimacy of that couple and all the controversy that on his side brought fame and richess and her´s sickness, surgeries, immense pain, jealousy frustration and sorrow. They were both bright and sensitive artists, living simultaneously, two ways of life. The public one, socially happy and the other private and miserable. I am hopping to have this book finished by September 2008, to hit libraries soon after. It already has a name: "That Brute Stone" Please let me know if this theme is interesting to you. Cordially, Rafael Ramirez.

Posted by rafael on July 10,2008 | 05:03 PM

i am also doing a project on her too and i have to have a 3-5 pages and i also have to do an outline

Posted by Valerie on June 1,2008 | 07:47 PM

I am doing a project on her, and i have to BE her for the class. and yes she is interesting but some of the things she paints are a little creepy and disturbing in my taste. but then again she did have a bit of a tragic life i guess:/

Posted by Jessica on May 29,2008 | 09:14 PM

Im doing an essay on her. Shes awesome

Posted by Amber on March 27,2008 | 11:39 AM

I think that this story was good and i feel sad about what happend to Frida Kahlo

Posted by Natasha on March 11,2008 | 07:22 PM

I own a 3' by 3' original painting 1948 depicting still life with a tree looking like a volcano. Can you tell me what this is worth for insurance purposes.

Posted by Lucille G. Legato, Ph.D. on February 1,2008 | 12:34 PM

i really love Frida's art and i would really like to buy one

Posted by timpist on November 29,2007 | 08:00 PM



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