The legacy of Frida Kahlo’s image has been immortalised and recycled repeatedly in popular culture and art. A new exhibition at the V&A in London, opening 16 June, offers admirers a fresh look at her style through her belongings and clothing – which for 50 years were locked away in the bathroom of her lifelong home, the Casa Azul in Mexico City.
In previewing this visual celebration of the trailblazing artist, Wilcox said she wanted the exhibition to create “as rounded a picture of Frida Kahlo as we can”, combining and intertwining elements of her art, sense of style and politics. Ill health pervaded the artist's life; she underwent multiple operations and spent a great deal of time bed-ridden, an experience integral to her art. To illustrate this, the museum will display such items as her decorated plaster casts and red leather embroidered prosthetic leg, alongside photographs from the period.
Kahlo, a committed communist, proudly expressed her Mexican heritage overtly through what she wore. Of the exhibition, Wilcox said that “the political significance is about her allegiance to Mexico” – traditional dress played a huge role in how she constructed her identity. The curator spoke of Kahlo adopting the style of women in Tehuantepec, a city in south-east Mexico, as a sign of solidarity, particularly during her visits to North America.
There has been a resurgence in public interest in Kahlo’s life and work; one reason, Wilcox argued, was her timelessness as an artist and a dresser. A “unique, rebellious, unconventional and contradictory” figure, she stood out in every photograph as completely independent of the time period. Fashion was essential to this, and Wilcox explained the exhibition’s vision to converge art and fashion history “on an equal playing field”. Visit Hay Player for the world’s great writers on audio and film; https://www.hayfestival.com/hayplayer/default.aspx?