This Exhibition Is Betting That You Don’t Know Frida Kahlo as Well as You May Think

Frida Kahlo is known for her colorful self-portraits exploring themes of human suffering, identity and Mexican culture. Her iconic appearance, marked by flower crowns and Tehuana dresses, is recognizable all over the world, and she has become one of the most famous women painters of all time.

However, a new exhibition at the Dallas Museum of Art is asking visitors how well they really know Kahlo. The show, “Frida: Beyond the Myth,” hopes to pull back the curtain and paint a more intimate picture of the artist.

“We’re basically trying to tell the full story,” Sue Canterbury, the exhibition’s co-curator, tells the Dallas Observer’s Carly May Gravley. “She wasn’t forthcoming. … She was very misleading at times. Trying to reveal some of those aspects about her and her life [is] key to this exhibition.”

Kahlo was known to exaggerate certain details about her life in her art and interviews. For example, she often said she was born the same year as the Mexican Revolution in 1910—even though she was actually born three years earlier.

“Through this persistent self-fashioning, Kahlo was, in essence, the architect of her own myth—a myth that she was ultimately devoured by,” says Canterbury in a statement from the museum. “It is only through the eyes of those around her that we are able to get closer to who she really was, seeing her as she was seen and not only as she saw herself.”

The show features 30 artworks by Kahlo alongside photographs of her. Some of the photos were taken by intimate partners like her husband, the muralist Diego Rivera, and her close friend and lover Nickolas Muray. Others were taken by respected artists in her inner circle, such as photographer Lola Álvarez Bravo, art dealer Julien Levy and photographer Henri Cartier-Bresson.

The exhibition covers Kahlo’s entire lifetime, beginning with a photograph of her as a 4-year-old girl and ending with snapshots taken on her deathbed.

The paintings on display represent some of the most personal moments of the artist’s life. In one artwork, Kahlo reflects on her grief after having an abortion, painting her palette in a heart shape.

“It’s almost like, ‘These will be my children; my work will be my children.’ This was very disturbing for her,” Canterbury tells NBC 5 Dallas-Fort Worth’s Kimberly Richard. “She was particularly sad to lose this particular child.”

Another portrait shows the artist near the end of her life, stripped of her flower crown with her hair down.

“We don’t see that Frida that is beautified, all made-up. You see her hair loose, you see her with that expression that is sad or tired,” Agustin Arteaga, the show's other co-curator, tells the TV station. “You see some of that resilience and hope is starting to drain out of her body.”

Some of the Kahlo paintings on view have not been publicly displayed in more than two decades, according to Artnet’s Devorah Lauter. Curators hope that visitors will come away with a more comprehensive understanding of the artist.

“Though Kahlo is beloved for her vibrant and emotional paintings, there is still much to learn about who she was as a person,” Arteaga says in the statement. “Through this exhibition, we hope to peel back some of the layers to reveal more about the individual who continues to captivate audiences here and around the world.”

“Frida: Beyond the Myth” is on view at the Dallas Museum of Art through November 17, 2024. It will then be on display at the Virginia Museum of Fine Arts from April 5 to September 28, 2025.

Julia Binswanger | READ MORE

Julia Binswanger is a freelance arts and culture reporter based in Chicago. Her work has been featured in WBEZ, Chicago magazine, Rebellious magazine and PC magazine.