Frida Kahlo: Timeless

 My sister's birthday gift to me was a ticket to the Frida Kahlo exhibit at the Carney Museum of Art at the College of DuPage.  She had a ticket, too, and we met at the museum on Wednesday.  (The first observation both of us made was the prevailing demographic of the attendees: women like us.)  

I didn't know much about Kahlo other than that she was Mexican and married to Diego Rivera.  (I have not seen the biographical movie Frida which came out in 2002.)  

Her father was Wilhelm Kahlo, a German immigrant who changed his name to Guillermo. He was a professional photographer. Her mother was mestiza (Spanish/Indian).  The family lived outside Mexico City.   She aspired to study medicine, but at age 18 she sustained severe injuries in a bus-trolley collision -- spine and pelvic damage that gave her severe pain for the rest of her life.    While she was bedridden recovering from surgery she began painting.  

Frida married Diego Rivera, already an internationally-famous artist, in 1928. He was 20 years older than she.  Their relationship was turbulent --  they divorced and remarried.  They both had lovers.   But he inspired and encouraged her career as an artist.  Their home base was La Casa Azul in Mexico City while they traveled extensively.  And all the while she was in pain and had many operations of varying success.

She died in 1954 (Rivera died in 1957).  Her greatest fame has come in the decades since her death.  This exhibit puts her work into the context of her life, beyond the pop art posters and the unibrow photos.  

Actually, there was more ABOUT her than by her. 

Her self-portraits often show her injury/disability. 

Frida often wore Tehauna-style dresses because the loose blouses covered the back braces and corsets she had to wear.

College of DuPage students recreated these dresses based on photographs. 

"There is perhaps no space that played a larger role in Kahlo's life and development than her bed.  As a child she contracted polio and was bedridden for nine months. The bus accident at age 18 confined her to bed again.  It was in her bed that she began her artistic career, using a custom-designed easel....The bed was her refuge when she was ill....She took center stage at her first solo exhibition appearing in her bed..."

This replica of the bed was funded by the DuPage County area Rotary Clubs in recognition of Rotary's campaign to end polio worldwide.  

And here we are with Frida!