When Frida Kahlo’s work was shown in Mexico for the first time in 1953, only a handful of people came to see it. Her paintings were considered too strange, too personal. Sixty-five years later, Kahlo is one of the most famous painters in the world. Her life and work are the subject of a new virtual exhibition in Hamburg.
“Viva Frida Kahlo” is the name of the exhibition, which can be seen in the Hamburg Museum of Art from 4/19, 2023 to 7/9, 2023.
Kahlo was born in 1907 in Coyoacán, a suburb of Mexico City. Her father was a photographer, her mother a housewife. Kahlo was a sickly child, suffering from polio and later a serious bus accident. She was in and out of hospital for much of her life. In 1925 she met Diego Rivera, the most famous Mexican painter of his day. They married in 1929 and divorced in 1939, but remained friends.
Kahlo’s paintings are mostly self-portraits. They show her with her injuries, her pain, her love for Rivera. They are often dark and sad, but also full of hope and humour.
Kahlo’s work was not well-known outside Mexico until the 1970s. Since then, her paintings have been shown in museums all over the world. The new exhibition in Hamburg includes more than 50 of her works, including paintings, drawings, and photographs.
