Frida Kahlo 2018

3 more Frida Kahlo experiences – same time – different places

 

Victoria & Albert Museum, London

Frida Kahlo: Making Her Self Up
Experience a fresh perspective on Kahlo’s compelling life story through her most intimate personal belongings

until 4 November 2018

Selfie with Frida – V&A Museum, London

This exhibition presents an extraordinary collection of personal artefacts and clothing belonging to the iconic Mexican artist Frida Kahlo. Locked away for 50 years after her death, this collection has never before been exhibited outside Mexico.

Detail of exhibition of Frida’s outfits – V&A Museum, London

Entrance of exhibition – V&A Museum, London

I visited this exhibition on 7 July 2018.

In head of Frida – V&A Museum, London

Detail of exhibition – V&A Museum, London

Photo from The Art of Frida Kahlo Instagram

Details of exhibition – V&A Museum, London

Photos by Széplaky Gerda

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Hungarian National Gallery, Budapest

FRIDA KAHLO

MASTERPIECES FROM THE MUSEO DOLORES OLMEDO, MEXICO CITY

until 4 November 2018

Sitting with Frida – Hungarian National Gallery, Budapest

Probably the most defining and iconic female artist of the twentieth century, Frida Kahlo is the subject of an exhibition at the Museum of Fine Arts – Hungarian National Gallery in the summer of 2018.

Detail of exhibition – Hungarian National Gallery, Budapest

Thanks to the kind generosity of the Museo Dolores Olmedo, Mexico City, and several other important Mexican collections, more than thirty paintings and other works by the artist are being brought on loan to Budapest.

Detail of exhibition – Hungarian National Gallery, Budapest

The selection – which not only features the artist’s hallmark self-portraits, but also includes such major works as her very first canvas, painted in 1927, as well as paintings and portraits inspired by the events in her life, works suffused with symbolism, drawings, and even photographs – offers a glimpse inside the evocative, yet physically and mentally tormented inner world of Frida Kahlo, and shows us the mythical reality that she experienced and recreated.

Frida Kahlo, who originally intended to study for a career in medicine, was prone to illness from her earliest childhood. At the age of six she contracted a viral infection, which malformed her right leg; as a teenager she was involved in a bus accident, receiving multiple fractures to her spine and pelvis. Her injuries caused her intolerable pain, and she was confined to her bed for long months.

She found escape from her suffering in painting, and the source of her art was her own self – the window onto her particular reality was the mirror, in which she could see her reflection looking back at her.

Detail of exhibition – Hungarian National Gallery, Budapest

The stiff, hieratic self-portraits that Frida Kahlo painted, mostly directly facing outwards or in two-thirds profile, were projections of the artist’s inner world, which helped her to create a new, versatile and exciting ego, radiant with energy, with which to confront the outside world.

Detail of exhibition – Hungarian National Gallery, Budapest

Her characteristic style of painting largely followed classical precedents, but was also richly nourished by Mexican folk culture. Many of her works are enlivened by historical, archaeological and ethnographic elements of Mexico before the Spanish conquest.

Filmdetail at entrance wall of exhibition – Hungarian National Gallery, Budapest

Through the magnificent works on display, the Budapest exhibition conjures up the intricate and organic unity between the life and art of Frida Kahlo.

Details of exhibition – Hungarian National Gallery, Budapest

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Vaclav Havel Square, Prague

I visited Prague 3-6 September. I saw this dressed sculpture of  Josef Malejovský (Czech, 1914-2003) by Eva Blahová. I guess Frida is around us everywhere.

Eva Blahová Reborn Knitted Frida Kahlo 2018 – Prague

Original sculpture – Josef Malejovský Rebirth, bronze 1983

Eva Blahová is an artist and scenic designer located in Prague, Czech Republic. The influential Mexican painter Frida Kahlo (1907-1954) dressed in her favorite Tehuana costume.

Eva Blahová written about her work:

“The staff from the National Theatre in Prague had an idea to transform the old bronze statue Znovuzrození (Rebirt, 1983) by Josef Malejovský, standing at Václav Havel Square (known also as piazetta) into something more appealing. From the beginning, I was thinking about an interesting female figure connected somehow with the world of art. When I was looking for the yarns that would match all those wonderful shades of gold and blue that we can see on the painting, I randomly found the antique crocheted blankets that my grandmother created for herself that wonderfully fit into my design.”

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