Frida Kahlo leaving Church, Coyoacán, Mexico. Fritz Henle, 1937. Reproduction authorised by the estate of the artist. Courtesy NPG.
Grabbing her shawl and a peasant skirt Sophie Morrison enters the world of a Mexican icon at the National Portrait Gallery.
With two London shows devoted to Mexican artist Frida Kahlo (1907 – 1954), 2005 is a good year for Frida-philes. The first helping is a selection of 50 photographic portraits of the icon, which visitors to the National Portrait Gallery can view until June 26.
Portraits of an Icon is an intimate exhibition that handily precedes the major retrospective of her work coming to Tate Modern in June. It provides an accessible introduction to an enigmatic woman and features personal portraits that show Kahlo in many guises.
Documenting her life as child, wife and artist through to her deathbed, the pieces offer an insight into the woman who labelled herself 'the great concealer'.
The exhibition opens with dramatic colour shots taken by Kahlo’s lover Nickolas Muray. These are followed by a series of black and white photographs taken by family and friends, together with some by the most renowned photographers of the 20th century. The selection is drawn from the collection of gallerist Spencer Throckmorton.
Frida on White Bench, 1939. Nickolas Muray. © Nickolas Muray Photo Archives. Courtesy NPG.
Highlights include the colourful and stylish Frida Kahlo on white bench by Nickolas Muray, in which Kahlo is represented as a striking Mexican female.
Family portraits by Kahlo’s father, Guillermo, a professional photographer, set the scene of her early years, whilst later shots, such as Imogen Cunningham’s Frida Kahlo, show her as a strong female figure, adorned with her characteristic bold jewellery and traditional shawls.
Kahlo often appears as a deeply feminine image, displaying both vulnerability and seductiveness, as in Lucienne Bloch’s Frida Kahlo biting her necklace. A knowing subject, Kahlo plays to the camera and is constantly aware of a sense of staging and artistry.
Hector Garcia also captures Kahlo’s vulnerability, shooting her with an anguished expression and her head in her hands. The contrasting shards of light and dark in Garcia’s portrait mirror the contradictions of Kahlo’s turbulent life. In Fritz Henle’s Frida Kahlo leaving Church, a simply-dressed Kahlo has something of the Madonna about her.
Frida Kahlo in her bedroom holding a baby goat. Bernard Silberstein, 1940. Reproduction authorised by the estate of the artist. Courtesy NPG.
Kahlo is also seen in a number of the photographs with the rather imposing figure of her husband, artist Diego Rivera. In one shot by Bernard Silberstein, Rivera looms over a seated Kahlo at work, as if judging her artistic ability. By contrast, Emmy Lou Packard depicts a tender domestic moment shared between husband and wife.
Many of the portraits, however, show Kahlo as a solitary figure, highlighting the fact that Kahlo often painted herself. In her own words: “I paint self-portraits because I am so often alone, because I am the person I know best.”
In the ultimate solitary shot of Kahlo, her great friend Lola Álvarez Bravo captures the artist on her deathbed, where she still cuts a powerful figure.
Described by husband Rivera as “the greatest proof of the renaissance of the art of Mexico,” Kahlo is today recognised as one of the most influential artists of her time.
This exhibition allows a glimpse of the innermost Kahlo and shows how, more than 50 years after her death, she remains an enticingly elusive figure.
