Mexican modern artist Frida Kahlo may have died 70 years ago, but her work lives on as a touring exhibit currently at the Virginia Museum of Fine Arts.
After viewing the only East Coast stop for the exhibit, this reporter can confirm Kahlo's work stays relevant in the face of today’s embrace of celebrity and trauma.
Frida: Beyond the Myth aims to provide windows into the life of one of the most famous portrait artists in North American history. But looking beyond the paint, and the famous unibrow, Virginia Museum of Fine Arts Curator Sarah G. Powers said Kahlo’s myth was the image she created of herself: “The creation of that myth was, in a way, her greatest work of art. She very much was the architect of her own persona.”
That persona, explored in the massive exhibition space, designed with vibrant blues, orange and windows between rooms to abstractly resemble her childhood home Casa Azul, in the VMFA’s lower level.
It starts with a tragic bus accident. Left bedridden for a year at a young age, Kahlo's parents put a mirror above her bed and an easel on which to paint… and even the early works are astounding.
“Oh wow," I gasp, turning a corner.
"Yeah," Powers says. "That is actually the reaction I hope most people will have because it is a graphic depiction of what happened to her.”
I won't spoil it, but the painting is a combination of traumatizing and beautiful, a young girl reflecting on her mangled body, but finding beauty in owning that body… even if the life that followed was filled with steep highs and lows, love triangles, and international fame.
For Powers, it's a message that may resonate with today’s reverie for the wounded-but-recovering celebrity, owning your trauma and using it as inspiration for artistic expression.
“She never shied away from any piece of her identity, but at the same time she was someone who owned who she was," Powers said. "Who can’t relate to the idea that you want to project strength in moments of inner weakness?”
Frida: Beyond the Myth runs through the end of September.
This report, provided by Virginia Public Radio, was made possible with support from the Virginia Education Association.
