Frida Kahlo’s first-ever oil portray; an embroidery crafted by the artist at simply 5 years previous; and a collection of letters, jewellery, and childhood pictures: Come this fall, a brand new Frida Kahlo museum will reveal never-before-seen scenes from the Mexican artist’s exemplary life.
The present Museo Frida Kahlo, housed within the Casa Azul (“Blue House”), the artist’s former residence in Mexico Metropolis’s Coyoacán neighborhood, shows clever components of the painter’s curated creative life shared with Diego Rivera. The forthcoming Museo Casa Kahlo, in the meantime, will intimately discover the formative years and familial relationships that shaped one of many world’s most recognizable artists.
Till now, Casa Roja (“Red House”) has been the non-public residence of the descendants of Kahlo’s sister, Cristina. Kahlo had bought the house from her dad and mom as a present for her sister, who was the one one among her siblings to have youngsters.
The present Frida Kahlo Museum within the Casa Azul in Mexico Metropolis (picture by way of Getty Photos)
The house’s final resident — Kahlo’s grand-niece Mara Romeo Kahlo — introduced final month that Casa Roja could be transformed right into a museum with assist from a brand new nonprofit basis began by their household. Fundación Kahlo, based mostly in New York, introduced plans to spend money on Latin American and Indigenous artwork by way of grants and financial prizes alongside the creation of the brand new museum, although a spokesperson declined to touch upon award quantities.
The Kahlo household doesn’t function Casa Azul, the place Kahlo was born and died from a pulmonary embolism simply earlier than her forty seventh birthday, in keeping with her dying certificates, although some speculate she might have died by suicide. Upon Rivera’s dying, the couple donated their residence to the state of Mexico, which administers it below a belief managed by the nation’s central financial institution.
A spokesperson for the forthcoming Museo Casa Kahlo informed Hyperallergic that the 2 museums centered on distinct elements of Kahlo’s “life and legacy” and that no collaborations between the establishments have been underway. The forthcoming museum will try to seize who Kahlo was to her household and the important moments in her early life, the spokesperson stated, and also will invite modern Mexican, Latin American, and girls artists to point out in short-term exhibitions.
The Museo Casa Kahlo tapped Adán García Fajardo, who presently leads Mexico Metropolis’s Museo Memoria y Tolerancia, as its inaugural director. The spokesperson for the museum stated its first exhibitions are nonetheless being deliberate forward of its September 27 opening date.
Amongst Kahlo’s belongings-turned-artifacts already accessible to the general public within the famed Casa Azul is the flowery contraption designed by her mom that allowed her to color within the supine place as she recovered from a catastrophic bus accident. Furnishings acquired by Rivera and Kahlo, the artist’s iconic robes, and greater than 200 private objects are additionally presently on show on the neighboring museum, which has not too long ago come below scrutiny over the alleged disappearance of artworks and pages from the artist’s diary. Hyperallergic has reached out to Casa Azul for remark.
In a press launch shared with Hyperallergic, Kahlo’s grand-niece Mara stated that making a museum was a long-held dream for the household.
“Frida’s legacy belongs to the world, but it begins here — on this land, in these homes, and in the culture that shaped her,” Mara stated. “Museo Casa Kahlo will allow us to tell new stories, share family secrets, host new voices, and build a future that honors her spirit.”
