Frida Kahlo: In her own image
Posted 18 May,2025
15 March – 13 July, 2025
Exclusive to Bendigo Art Gallery
Never before seen in Australia and direct from Mexico’s Museo Frida Kahlo, this major new exhibition features the iconic artist’s personal belongings including her fashion collection, make up, accessories and medical items, as well as two celebrated paintings, and a series of drawings, archival photographs, letters and items from Kahlo’s cherished family home, the Casa Azul (the Blue House).
Following her death in 1954, Frida’s husband Diego Rivera made arrangements for the Casa Azul to be preserved as a museum in her honour, as a gift to the people of Mexico. Her most personal belongings were sealed in a bathroom with the instruction that they be kept out of public view for 15 years. In the end, it was fifty years before the bathroom was unsealed, revealing a treasure-trove of precious items which had survived the passage of time. This extraordinary collection provides an intimate insight into Kahlo’s life, her revolutionary creative style, and her distinctive worldview.
Frida Kahlo: In her own image draws on these items, many considered Mexican national treasures, to reveal the full extent of Kahlo’s careful construction of her appearance.
Combining traditional regional Mexican garments with eclectic modern elements, layered with potent historical and cultural references, Kahlo constructed and performed her identity to embody her bold artistic vision and her deeply held cultural and political beliefs.
Highlights of the exhibition include:
• Traditional regional Mexican garments worn by Kahlo, including a spectacular resplandor, a pleated white headdress which frames the face, worn by Tehuana women of Oaxaca region.
• A collection of Kahlo’s favourite Revlon cosmetics, including eyebrow pencil, blush, nail polishes, and lipstick, used by the artist to dramatise and accentuate her features.
• Medical corsets worn after spinal surgeries following a devastating traffic accident, which have been delicately hand-painted and embellished by Kahlo, including one painted with a broken Tuscan column representing her spine.
• A self-portrait drawing titled Appearances Can be Deceiving, depicting an x-ray view through Kahlo’s clothing to her corset and injured body underneath.
In addition, the exhibition includes one of Kahlo’s most important paintings, Self Portrait with Thorn Necklace and Hummingbird (1940), on loan from the Harry Ransom Center at the University Texas, Austin. The painting will be displayed in Australia for the first time, and is considered to be one of Kahlo’s best works, created at the height of her artistic maturity.
Also included in the exhibition and never before seen in Australia will be the work Still life with Parrot and fruit (1951), the centerpiece of which is a large watermelon, a highly symbolic motif in Mexican culture and art. The exhibition will also include a number of Kahlo’s original drawings, many of which were discovered along with her letters and photographs in the sealed bathrooms at Casa Azul.
Bendigo Art Gallery Director Jessica Bridgfoot said the exhibition offers an insight into the deep connections that exist between Kahlo’s clothing, her home, and her ground-breaking painting and drawing practice. ‘It is such an honour to have the opportunity to work with the Museo Frida Kahlo to tell the story of one of the world’s most mythologised artists. This remarkable collection rarely travels outside Mexico, and has never before been seen in Australia. Kahlo’s much-loved home, La Casa Azul, now the Museo Frida Kahlo, was the embodiment of her art, philosophies, and design influences.’
In addition, the exhibition includes one of Kahlo’s most important paintings, Self Portrait with Thorn Necklace and Hummingbird (1940), on loan from the Harry Ransom Center at the University Texas, Austin. The painting will be displayed in Australia for the first time, and is considered to be one of Kahlo’s best works, created at the height of her artistic maturity.
Also included in the exhibition and never before seen in Australia will be the work Still life with Parrot and fruit (1951), the centerpiece of which is a large watermelon, a highly symbolic motif in Mexican culture and art. The exhibition will also include a number of Kahlo’s original drawings, many of which were discovered along with her letters and photographs in the sealed bathrooms at Casa Azul.
Bendigo Art Gallery Director Jessica Bridgfoot said the exhibition offers an insight into the deep connections that exist between Kahlo’s clothing, her home, and her ground-breaking painting and drawing practice. ‘It is such an honour to have the opportunity to work with the Museo Frida Kahlo to tell the story of one of the world’s most mythologised artists. This remarkable collection rarely travels outside Mexico, and has never before been seen in Australia. Kahlo’s much-loved home, La Casa Azul, now the Museo Frida Kahlo, was the embodiment of her art, philosophies, and design influences.’
Frida Kahlo: In her own image
Exclusive to Bendigo Art Gallery
15 March – 13 July 2025
Bendigo Art Gallery www.bendigoartgallery.com.au
