As the exhibition Frida Kahlo: Making Her Self Up opens at London's Victoria and Albert Museum, DW explores how her father, a photographer originally from Germany, helped her become an artist.
Image: Nickolas Muray Photo Archives
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Highlights from the exhibition Frida Kahlo: Making Her Self Up
With Frida Kahlo: Making Her Self Up, London's Victoria and Albert Museum provides insight into how the artist constructed her iconic persona. Here are a few of the items on show.
Image: Nickolas Muray Photo Archives
An iconic gaze of defiance
Originally from Germany, Guillermo Kahlo, Frida's father, was a photographer who suffered from epilepsy and understood the major health setbacks his daughter experienced. Frida helped her dad in his photo studio and would pose for him, "often gazing straight at the camera with her characteristic defiance," said Ana Baeza Ruiz, a researcher for the V&A show on Kahlo. This portrait is from 1926.
Image: D. Riviera and F. Kahlo Archives, Banco de México
Frida in color
The exhibition, titled Frida Kahlo: Making Her Self Up, features over 200 of the artist's personal objects, as well as paintings and photographs. "A countercultural and feminist symbol, this show will offer a powerful insight into how Frida Kahlo constructed her own identity," said Claire Wilco, co-curator at the Victoria and Albert Museum in London. This 1939 photo was taken by Nickolas Muray.
Image: Nickolas Muray Photo Archives
Traditional elements
Kahlo used dress as a political statement, constructing her identity to mirror her own mestizo (mixed race) background and loyalty to her Mexican roots. The exhibition includes garments from her personal collection, such as rebozos, a traditional Mexican shawl, huipiles, an embroidered square-cut top, enaguas and holanes, floor-length skirts with flounces, as well as Pre-Columbian accessories.
Image: D. Riviera and F. Kahlo Archives, Banco de México/J. Hinojosa
A statement-making coat
Through her art and style of dressing, like this Guatemalan cotton coat, paired with a Mazatec huipil and a floor-length skirt, Kahlo turned tragedy into creativity after a streetcar accident left her with lasting physical and emotional wounds at age 18. She was convalescent for months and at that time, she taught herself how to paint.
Image: D. Riviera and F. Kahlo Archives, Banco de México
Supportive measures
Items such as her medicine, orthopedic aids and this prosthetic leg with leather boot, featuring appliquéd silk and embroidered Chinese motifs are also on display. Kahlo owned many supportive bodices and spine braces. Some of the corsets she painted with religious and communist symbolism and tragic visuals tied to her miscarriages are also included in the exhibition.
Image: D. Riviera and F. Kahlo Archives, Banco de México/J. Hinojosa
Facial recognition
Going against mainstream beauty standards, Kahlo proudly emphasized her signature unibrow with an ebony eyebrow pencil. This and various cosmetics, still in their original packaging, are on show at the V&A exhibition. Her vibrant makeup highlighted her features, as the color portraits by photographer Nickolas Muray also show.
Image: D. Riviera and F. Kahlo Archives, Banco de México/J. Hinojosa
Bold and beguiling
Hungarian-born American photographer Nickolas Muray shot some of Kahlo's most iconic portraits. While she was married to Mexican muralist Diego Rivera, she also had a decade-long on-and-off affair with the prolific portrait photographer, and they remained friends until her death in 1954. Among the best known photos of the artist is this and the following portrait, both from 1939.
Image: Nickolas Muray Photo Archives
Making her self up
Flower crowns. Thick braids. Unapologetic facial hair. Chunky accessories. Vibrant ensembles. These were just some of the features Frida Kahlo personally curated to sculpt her identity — from head to toe. Through items that have never been exhibited before outside of Mexico, the show Frida Kahlo: Making Her Self Up, held from June 16 to November 4, 2018, glimpses into how she achieved this.
Image: Nickolas Muray Photo Archives
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While Kahlo's legacy is deeply ingrained in Mexico's cultural history, it might come as a surprise that half of Kahlo's roots can be traced back to Germany, where her father, Guillermo, was born.
He played an enormous role in inspiring her creativity before Frida blossomed into an internationally renowned artist.
The exhibition Frida Kahlo: Making Her Self Up, which opens at the Victoria and Albert Museum in London on June 16, explores how the iconic artist built her identity through her personal belongings, such as her clothing, her cosmetics, her photos and her collected objects of art.
Among the over 200 exhibits on display, the show also includes photos taken by her father, such as an album of architectural churches.
Born in 1871 in Pforzheim, Germany, Carl Wilhelm Kahlo came to Mexico at the age of 19. When his mother died, Kahlo's father remarried; the young man didn't get along well with his stepmother. Since the family had enough money to live comfortably, Kahlo's father provided him with financial support to sail to Mexico in pursuit of new opportunities.
He never returned to his native Germany, Mexicanizing his name to Guillermo, while retaining a German accent in Spanish throughout his life.
Guillermo Kahlo was born Carl Wilhelm in GermanyImage: Wikipedia/Museo Frida Kahlo
Kahlo spent the beginning of his time in Mexico working for other Germans. After the death of his first wife, he remarried to Matilde Calderón. She persuaded him to take up photography, her father's profession. Kahlo became known for his images of "landscapes, buildings, interiors," as printed on his business card.
By 1904, Kahlo had established his career, and bought land in Coyoacán, outside of Mexico City. At that time, Guillermo and Matilde had already had two daughters, and in the coming years, Frida was born in 1907.
Developing image awareness as a child
"Guillermo Kahlo established his photography studio in Mexico City in the late 1890s, and as a child [Frida] Kahlo helped him in his dark room and accompanied him on photographic assignments," Ana Baeza Ruiz, a researcher from the V&A, told DW.
"From a very young age, Kahlo learned to pose for the camera, often gazing straight at the camera with her characteristic defiance. This awareness of the onlooker, through the eye of the camera, but also of her own reflection, marks the beginning of her self-made image," points out Ruiz. "Later she shapes this image through her choice of clothing and her painting, especially in her self-portraits, both driven by her cultural and political commitments."
She was almost 12 years old on this pictureImage: Wikipedia/Museo Frida Kahlo
Evidence of Frida's developing image can be seen in a family portrait taken by Guillermo when Frida was 17, where she's seen wearing a man's suit.
"It is difficult to know exactly how Kahlo's father impacted her choice of clothing, but it was certainly unusual for a woman to dress up in men's clothes; this would have countered the fashion conventions of her time," says Ruiz. "Kahlo was not fearful of going against the grain — in fact she seems to have cherished it, and this I think she probably shared with her father. According to a later inscription in the photograph, the three-piece suit she is wearing may have been her father's."
According to historians, Frida was Guillermo's favorite child as both father and daughter had suffered from debilitating health conditions. Guillermo cared for Frida during her two particularly difficult periods of convalescence.
At the age of six, Frida contracted polio which left one of her legs smaller than the other. Despite the circumstances, Guillermo encouraged her to stay active and engage in sports.
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Later when Frida was 18, a streetcar accident left her with spinal column and clavicle wounds, and lacerations in her hip and pelvis. Frida was bedridden for months, and the emotional and physical repercussions endured throughout her life. Guillermo persuaded Frida to paint, and she channeled her days of recovery into creativity.
In turn, Frida took care of her father when he had epileptic seizures. The periods of ordeal strengthened their bond.
Her self-portraits alongside his photos
Guillermo's impact on Frida's artistic vision is also highlighted through the V&A exhibition.
For example, in one unfinished drawing, Kahlo has sketched the silhouette of three versions of herself, and the self-portraits are based on three photographs, with at least two of them taken by Guillermo Kahlo between 1913 and 1926. "Kahlo captures here the transition from childhood to early youth, showing her fascination with her self-made image, but she is also tracing her relationship with the camera, her father, and the viewer," says Ruiz. The photographs are shown alongside the drawing, allowing visitors to observe this directly for themselves.
Perhaps the ultimate expression of Frida's affection for her father is the painting Portrait of my Father. Frida painted Guillermo, 10 years after his death, with his camera, "emphasizing his trade as both intellectual and technical labor," says Ruiz. His glance is sideways and his appearance, handsome.
In the Ex-Voto's inscription at the bottom, Frida describes his nature as "generous, intelligent and polite," a glowing tribute to his lasting impression on her.
Frida Kahlo: Making Her Self Up runs at the Victoria and Albert Museum in London from June 16 to November 4, 2018.
Frida Kahlo's private photos
Artist Frida Kahlo only rarely allowed herself to be photographed without her traditional Mexican dress. Now a German museum is showing some of the most intimate photos from her personal collection.
Image: Museum MARTA
Vulnerable femininity
Mexican artist Frida Kahlo revealed her vulnerable side to only very few people. Only her lover, photographer Nickolas Muray, captured moments as intimate as these. Her life was severely impacted by polio and the traffic accident she suffered at a young age, which did not hinder her art. The black-and-white photos of her stand in sharp contrast to the artist's brightly colored oeuvre.
Image: Museo Frida Kahlo, Mexico City
With love
Frida Kahlo meticulously maintained a collection of photographs by some of the top photographers of her time, including Tina Modotti and Man Ray. Snapshots like this one of her husband, painter Diego Rivera, were also among her collection. Kahlo liked to "sign" her works with a lipstick kiss or note her thoughts in the margins.
Image: Museo Frida Kahlo, Mexico City
Family tradition
Kahlo was born in 1907 on the outskirts of Mexico City. Back then, family photo albums, carefully bound in leather, could be found in every well-to-do household. Her father, Guillermo Kahlo, was a photographer and passed on his love for the art. Frida often posed for him and her private photo collection later became an essential part of her own artistic identity.
Image: Museum MARTA/DW
Unique heritage
Guillermo Kahlo was German and Frida later claimed he also had Hungarian-Jewish roots. He immigrated to Mexico in 1891 and became one of the most renowned photographers in the country. Her mother, Mathilde Calderón, had indigenous Mexican and Spanish roots and was "terribly exaggerated in religious things," according to Frida.
Image: Museum MARTA/DW
Therapeutic photography
Guillermo Kahlo created countless artistic portraits of his daughter. She often accompanied him on excursions and helped him develop his photographs. Frida's right leg was left partially handicapped after she contracted polio at the age of six.
Image: Museo Frida Kahlo, Mexico City
Painting in recovery
She was already acquainted with handicap, but in 1925 Kahlo's life would change dramatically once again. She was severely wounded in a bus accident and nearly died of internal bleeding. Restricted to her sick bed, she began to keep a journal and paint. Hospital visits would become a regular part of her life. She built a special apparatus which allowed her to paint while lying down.
Image: Museo Frida Kahlo, Mexico City
The art of love
At the age of 22, Kahlo married 43-year-old Diego Rivera, Mexico's most successful artist at the time. She admired him and assisted him with his massive wall-sized works. Rivera called his wife "his dove" and enjoyed seeing her in brightly colored traditional Mexican dresses like this one.
Image: Museo Frida Kahlo, Mexico City
American dream
In 1932, Diego Rivera was commissioned by the car maker Ford to create a large political mural. The artist was fascinated by the abstract language of the industrial world. Kahlo traveled with him to the United States and exhibited her works for the first time in San Francisco, where she was celebrated. Pictured are two of Kahlo's photos from Detroit. Two years later, the couple returned to Mexico.
Image: Museum MARTA/DW
The search for love
Rivera had numerous extramarital affairs and Kahlo was often unhappy in her marriage. The pair divorced, but remarried again in 1940. Kahlo was also involved in other relationships, with both men and women. Her lover, photographer Nickolas Muray (left), documented her life up until her death in 1954 at the young age of 47.
Image: Museo Frida Kahlo, Mexico City
Rarely viewed treasures
Frida Kahlo's private collection includes 6,500 photographs. It wasn't made available to the public until 2007, many years after her death. Curator Pablo Ortiz Monasterio selected 241 photos, which are on show at the MARTA Herford museum in northern-central Germany through May 10, 2015.
