The figure of Frida Kahlo, beyond the myth

Cut of the famous photograph taken by Nickolas Muray, who was her lover

Frida Kahlothe famous Mexican artist, is the subject of a new exhibition at the Dallas Museum of (DMA) that seeks to unravel her complex personality beyond her artistic work.

The exhibition, titled Frida: Beyond the mythattempts to offer a more intimate view of the great painter, exploring her personal life and creative process through some 30 works of art and 30 photographs taken by people close to her.

Sue Canterburycurator of American art at the DMA, noted that Kahlo was “the architect of her own myth,” a myth that ultimately consumed her. According to Canterbury, only through the eyes of those around her can we try to understand who the painter really was, beyond the image that she herself constructed. The exhibition includes photographs from his childhood, taken by his father, William Kahloto images of her adult life, captured by figures like her husband, the muralist Diego Riveraand her occasional lover Nickolas Murray.

“Self-portrait with loose hair”, (1947) oil on masonite, private collection (Banco de México Diego Rivera Frida Kahlo Museums Trust, City/Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York)

The exhibition also features works by Kahlo, the most expensive Latin American artist in history, that have not been seen in more than two decades, including pastel drawings and sketches that rarely leave Mexico. Among the featured pieces is a 1952 photograph showing Kahlo working on her last completed painting, Living Naturewhile he was in bed. This image is displayed alongside the painting itself, offering a glimpse into his creative process in his later years.

The statement about the exhibition argues that Kahlo’s works, while expressing her emotional responses to personal challenges, make it difficult to understand her true identity. Kahlo constructed a person with opposite characteristics: seductress and victim, strong and vulnerable. His paintings, although not conceived as autobiographies, are highly personal forms of expression that reveal his vision of the world.

“Diego and Frida 1929-1944”, (1944) oil on masonite with original painted shell frame (Private collection, courtesy Arvil Gallery, Mexico. Banco de México Diego Rivera Frida Kahlo Museums Trust, Mexico City/Artists Rights Society (ARS ), New York)

The exhibition also addresses how Kahlo reflected intimate details of her life in her works, such as her surgeries and physical pain after an accident in her youth, as well as her tumultuous marriage to Rivera. One of his most controversial paintings, created in 1938 to commemorate the actress Dorothy Haleis linked to his own internal battles. Another notable work is My dress hangs there or New York (1933), showing her iconic Tehuana dress in a New York landscape during the Great Depression.

Through this combination of art and photography, the exhibition seeks to offer a deeper understanding of Kahlo as an individual, while recognizing that even images can only offer additional interpretations. Kahlo’s tendency toward self-construction, from her paintings to her fashion to her false birth date, could reveal more about her than any precise chronology of events.

The exhibition will be on view through November 17 and will then move to the Virginia Museum of Fine Arts (VMFA) from April 5 to September 28, 2025.

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