Frida Kahlo’s Personal Possessions Star in a Revelatory Exhibition at Bendigo Art Gallery

Frida Kahlo’s masterful self-portraits have made her an enduring global icon. The Mexican artist is instantly recognisable by her brightly coloured attire and distinctive brow, and her tumultuous life story is widely known and understood as a significant source of her deep and distinctive art practice.

Bendigo Art Gallery brings Kahlo’s legacy to life with Frida Kahlo: In her own image , a major exhibition of belongings, photographs and mementos direct from Mexico City. The artefacts come from La Casa Azul (“The Blue House”) – Kahlo’s family home where she grew up and later lived with husband Diego Rivera, now preserved as a museum – and together they give visitors the means to understand how Kahlo cultivated her own mythology.

“We’ve really tried to emulate some of that very special experience and bring the spirit of the house, and more broadly the creative universe that Frida constructed, to Bendigo,” says Lauren Ellis, curatorial manager at Bendigo Art Gallery. “The exhibition really looks at the idea that Frida’s most captivating work of art was herself.”

The gallery worked closely with Museo Frida Kahlo, the custodians of La Casa Azul, to bring these precious and fragile objects to Australia for the first time, including material that was hidden in a bathroom following Kahlo’s death in 1954 and remained there for more than 50 years. The centre of Frida’s creative life, La Casa Azul is a truly special place to experience, but it faces the significant challenges of catering to thousands of tourists in a small, historic family home. Bendigo has something that La Casa Azul doesn’t – space.

“We have the great benefit of space to tell a rich story that will take people right through from her early childhood to the height of her fame and her artistic power, and then a quite touching reflection on her legacy,” says Ellis. “Our colleagues at La Casa Azul have been generous in sharing many items which rarely come out of the archive.”

Each room is dedicated to a different aspect of Kahlo’s life, from formative childhood experiences, such as her early bout with polio and the tram accident that changed the course of her life, to her infamous relationships, careful fashion choices and passionate activism. Along the way, these photographs, mementos and belongings – clothes and make-up, medical corsets and art supplies – help tell her story.

Frida Kahlo: In her own image was conceived by Circe Henestrosa, who heads the School of Fashion at Singapore’s Lasalle College of the Arts. Henestrosa’s analysis of Kahlo’s wardrobe weaves together several strands of Kahlo’s identity: her femininity and disability, her intellect and creativity, as well as her cosmopolitanism.

“She took fashion garments from so many different contexts. She had American and European garments, Chinese things bought in Chinatowns in the States, and the famous regional Mexican garments, including full floral skirts and colourful embroidered blouses,” says Ellis. “These outfits partly disguised her disability, but Kahlo was ahead of her time in confronting stigmas about the body and disability. She was very strategic. She often revealed to photographers her body below, and she would embellish or decorate her prostheses and her orthopaedic devices, like the [medical] corsets.”

There’s also the thrill of discovering small details like dabs of paint on garments (“you really get a sense of Frida as a working painter”) and well-used cosmetics that highlight her femininity as well as her deliberate dedication to cultivating her facial hair. “She was a real innovator of playing with gender in so many ways,” says Ellis. “Her make-up is one little window into that.”

Thus far, visitors of all stripes have found something enlightening in the exhibition. “The feedback I’ve heard as a curator is how surprised people have been to find how fascinating and beguiling and moving her story was, even from people who didn’t think they were very interested in her, or who maybe didn’t really get what the fuss was about with her paintings,” Ellis says. “And there are a lot of people who think they know Frida really well, yet are surprised that there are so many layers to her work that they’d never really considered. Gannit Ankori, who is a distinguished Kahlo scholar and an advising curator to the exhibition, provides detailed curatorial insights which reveal just how sophisticated and complex an artist Kahlo was.”

The exhibition is the latest instalment in the Bendigo International Collections series, organised in partnership with the Victorian Government. A key element of bringing it to Bendigo was the relationship built with Museo Frida Kahlo, the foundation of which was trust that the exhibition would tell Kahlo’s story in a way that honoured her politics and values as an artist, says Ellis. “They take their responsibility as the stewards of her legacy very seriously – she’s a national icon and [her art] is also legally protected national cultural heritage. It’s been wonderful to work with them so collaboratively to bring such an authentic picture of her life to Australia.”

Bendigo Art Gallery is offering Broadsheet readers the chance to win a weekend’s stay in Bendigo, including a double pass to the exhibition, stylish accommodation, and meals at two top local restaurants. The competition is open until June 22 – find more information and enter here.

This article has been produced in partnership with the City of Greater Bendigo and Visit Victoria. Catch Frida
Kahlo: In her own image at Bendigo Art Gallery until July 13.