After artist Frida Kahlo died in 1954, Mexican painter Diego Rivera, two times husband of Kahlo, instructed to lockdown her wardrobe and belongings. They were kept mainly in her night room bathroom. Since she spent long time in bed due to illness and recovery of the multiple surgeries, she had two bedrooms, one where she painted during the day and the second one, where she slept.
Rivera instructed Kahlo’s personal effects should remain sealed for fifteen years after her death. However, Rivera died in 1957 and Dolores Olmedo, patron and heir of the control of both artist’s estates, decided to maintain locked Kahlo’s belongings indefinitely.
The exhibition held since 2012 in the Blue House in Mexico City, officially known as Museo Frida Kahlo, displays Kahlo’s personal artifacts including her orthopedic devices, clothing, shoes, make-up, medicines, jewelry, headdresses, as well as self-portraits created by the artist, photographs and diaries. The show is an attempt by Singapore based, Mexican fashion curator, Circe Henestrosa, of unraveling Frida Kahlo’s private self to shed light to the public one.
© Ana Márquez, 2023.
Ana Márquez 