 – Opening on Saturday, November 19, 2022 in the Parrish Art Museum, “Kahlo: An Expanded Body” is a groundbreaking investigation into celebrated artist Frida Kahlo (Mexican,…){kind=link}
WATER MILL, NY (PNAN) – Opening on Saturday, November 19, 2022 in the Parrish Art Museum, “Kahlo: An Expanded Body” is a groundbreaking investigation into celebrated artist Frida Kahlo (Mexican, 1907–1954) through more than 100 documents, photos, letters and clinical files that shed light on her dramatic medical history and its sustained impact on her life and work. Note: The show opens at 11:00 am to 2:00 pm and at Noon there will be a talk with Curator Cristina Kahlo and Museum Executive Director Mónica Ramírez-Montagut.
On view will be facsimiles of personal letters and postcards between Frida and family, friends, lovers and doctors; photographs of the artist and her inner circle by Mexican and international photographers, including Lola Álvarez Bravo, Florence Arquin, Gisele Freund, Guillermo Kahlo, Antonio Kahlo, and Nickolas Muray; and extensive graphic medical records and documents. In addition, the exhibition is augmented by original work by Cristina Kahlo, and María and Tolita Figueroa.
The exhibit opens with a chronicle of Kahlo’s stays at the American British Cowdray (ABC) Hospital in Mexico City depicted through images of the facility’s staff, exterior and interior, including the operating room where many of her procedures took place.
Throughout her life, Kahlo transformed aspects of her body: the heart, torso, mouth, into recurring images in her work. An entire gallery is dedicated to the heart through a variety of representational and metaphorical depictions as well as a 30-foot red fabric heart by María and Tolita Figueroa.
Other works address matters of the heart through images of the artist with those she held dear: family and childhood photos; group photographs from the 1930s through ‘50s featuring her husband Diego Rivera.
The artist’s body is further represented with 1938 photographs of Kahlo’s nude torso by Julien Levy. Blood was a frequent element in Kahlo’s work and is often painted in one of her favorite colors, Carmine red. It appears in a more intimate context through her own red lipstick kisses that decorate photos, letters and postcards.
The exhibition includes an interactive educational component featuring a bed mimicking the painting, “The Dream” (the Bed), 1940 and a table with art supplies for children to make portraits and create postcards to share in a community art initiative.
For current exhibitions and other programing, see www.parrishart.org or call 613.283.2118. To view online Kahlo’s paintings, see www.fridakahlo.org as well as https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Frida_Kahlo.