Frida Kahlo exhibit opens at VMFA with rarely seen art
Why it matters: The Richmond museum is the second place in the country to host the exhibition, which opens Saturday.
The big picture:"Frida: Beyond the Myth" vows to move past the commercialized portrayal of the 20th-century Indigenous Mexican artist and her famous eyebrows.
Axios got a sneak peek this week: It weaves you through the defining moments of Kahlo's life, captured through the lens of her father in the early years and, later, those close to her.
You get to see her as a kid, defying gender norms while wearing her dad's three-piece suit in a family portrait.
Through her paintings and drawings, you see her process miscarriages, and the back-to-back betrayals from her husband Diego Rivera.
Yes, but: The exhibit doesn't reduce her art and life to just her suffering. It instead shows how her disabilities — which include chronic pain from a traumatic bus accident, an amputation and depression — shaped her will to live.
They influenced her politics, queerness, rebelliousness, fashion and humor.
"She was someone who really fought for her right and her freedom to express herself however she wanted, from the beginning of her life to the end," curator Sarah Powers told Axios.
Zoom in: Where the exhibit thrives is in its design. Its walls are colored like the Casa Azul, the blue house Kahlo grew up and died in at the age of 47.
There are terracotta-painted windows throughout that give glimpses into the works you'll see next — many of which have rarely been seen outside of Mexico, per the VMFA.
And there are few chances to interact with the art, including a backdrop mimicking the " Frida on White Bench" photo.
All the info and descriptions are provided in English and Spanish.
What's ahead: Throughout these next six months, the VMFA will host events honoring Kahlo, including:
April 5: ¡FridaFest!, a full day of live music, paintings and food from local Mexican restaurants. 1-7pm.
April 25: A talk with Hayden Hererra, the author of the Frida Kahlo biography. 6:30-7:30pm. $8.
April 26: A film screening of "Frida" starring Salma Hayek. 1-4pm.
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Axios
3 minutes ago
- Axios
"Leguizamo Does America" shows Latino stories drive audiences — and dollars
"Leguizamo Does America" director Ben DeJesus tells Axios the show proves that telling Latinos ' stories doesn't just make audiences "feel good" — it's "good business." Why it matters: The first season of "Leguizamo Does America" was the most viewed MSNBC original in over two years on Peacock. State of play: The road trip-style weekly MSNBC series follows host and executive producer John Leguizamo as he explores how Latinos are shaping history, culture and food in major U.S. cities. "For season two, I wanted to go deeper into America and put a magnifying glass on Latino exceptionalism, Latino ingenuity, and Latino genius," Leguizamo, who is of Puerto Rican and Colombian descent, said in a statement. The big picture: The economic power of U.S. Latinos surpassed $4 trillion in 2023, according to a UCLA and Cal Lutheran report published this year. "Latinos are over 60 million here in the United States," DeJesus says. "So we are the mainstream, right? We're not just trying to say, well, help us please. We have something to offer, and from a business point of view, we think it makes a lot of sense as well." Zoom in: In the show, Leguizamo, an Emmy-winning actor, visits the birthplace of sizzling fajitas with a congressman in San Antonio and trains with lucha libre wrestlers in Denver. He also toured Philadelphia, Phoenix, New Orleans and Raleigh with artists, chefs, activists and entertainers. What we're watching: The Raleigh episode premieres at 9pm ET Sunday, with new episodes airing through August. Each episode is available to stream on Peacock the day after airing on MSNBC.
Fox News
3 hours ago
- Fox News
The Quiz #484 - O-H-I-O
What is the name for a period of two weeks? Play. Share. Listen with Celebrity Memoir Book Club Co-host, Claire Parker.
Los Angeles Times
9 hours ago
- Los Angeles Times
August event series ‘Mexican Nights' will bring traditional music and dance to the Ford
Beginning Aug. 2, the Ford is kicking off 'Mexican Nights,' an event series that seeks to highlight arts traditions from throughout Mexico's storied and diverse history. Attendees of the series can immerse themselves in the local staples of the boleros scene, watch some of the most decorated mariachi musicians from prominent groups across generations and experience dance cultures from various Mexican states. Get to know the acts that will take the stage in the Hollywood Hills venue. The first performance of the summer concert series will feature the reunion of Marisoul Y Los Hermanos Carlos, whose over-two-decade run in the band La Santa Cecilia began with performances at Downtown L.A.'s Placita Olvera. Also featured in the evening's lineup is the brother duo of Bolero Soul, whose 40-year run was inspired by their grandfather's musical tendencies in the Mexican state of Jalisco in the 1930s. The Boleros de Noche creative director Roberto Carlos first fell in love with live performance in his mid-teens when he would frequent the now-defunct Teatro los Pinos in South Gate. He recalled one Sunday performance, which his father took him to, that left a lasting impact. 'It was so powerful to see my dad take me to that concert, knowing that I knew he had to wake up early the next day,' Carlos told The Times. 'Meeting the artists and walking through the hallways listening to music in the background — I felt that was one of the first initial steps ... I had a connection with the music that day, with the artist and with my dad. That's kind of what started the dream for me.' In 2015, Carlos began to yearn for that same level of comfort and awe at music and wanted to share that with a larger audience. Surely enough, there were people who shared his love of bolero music. The first iteration of the event took place in an art gallery in Echo Park. 'At Boleros de Noche, [I want] for us to speak in Spanish, to feel recognized, to do this music as a celebration for all these artists that unfortunately became background music for a lot of like weddings and quinceañeras,' Carlos said. 'How about if we celebrate them and give them a recognition? How about if, through my events, I can take people back to the 1940s to my experience at Teatro los Pinos?' Recently, the City of L.A. declared Aug. 2 the Día de Bolero, something Carlos is especially proud of given the current political climate. 'I think it's really symbolic, especially right now. It's a statement that our culture matters. I feel it's a necessity. I feel like we need to keep preserving our identity and [keep] our culture alive,' he said. 'I think there's a lot of contributions that Latin American communities bring to L.A., and we need to celebrate and know that we're still here.' Ultimately, Carlos wants his events to help create a safe and welcoming gathering place for locals. 'It's about bolero music. It's about community. It's about people. It's about the musicians,' he said. 'Many of the musicians were undocumented. They brought this music to L.A. through their hometowns.' Suzanne Garcia, a lifelong mariachi musician and the producer of Leyendas del Mariachi, knows the thrill of playing on stage — and never wanting that feeling to stop. 'Mariachis play until they're well into their 70s. I mean, retirement for musicians is just not typical,' Garcia told The Times. 'It's in your blood. Many of them have generations and generations of family that have been mariachis and that's what they know. That's what makes them happy.' That's what the Aug. 7 event is projected to do: provide a place for musicians who are long past their touring days but are still eager to connect across generations through music. Set to perform at the show are members from Mariachi Vargas de Tecalitlán, Mariachi Los Camperos, Mariachi Nuevo Tecalitlán, Mariachi Cobre and Mariachi América de Jesús Rodríguez de Hijar. 'For me, just seeing these men perform when I was a little girl,' Garcia said,' it brings back so much nostalgia. Just getting them all together would bring back so many good memories. Mariachi is such a unifying music that, no matter if you're 10 or you're 75, you can play the same songs and be together on stage.' Having previously been staged at the Soraya in Northridge, the show has brought in people from across the country to appreciate the congregation of musical icons. 'People want to see their legends,' said Garcia. 'L.A. has kind of been a hub where they come and people will travel to see them, because they miss it. They miss seeing them on stage, because some of them haven't been on that big stage for many years.' The Grandeza Mexicana Folk Ballet Company, alongside the Teocalli Ballet Folklórico México and the Mariachi Tesoro de San Fernando, will explore the various customs of several Mexican states through traditional wedding dance and music. Founded in 2003 by Jose Vences, the L.A.-based Grandeza Mexicana Folk Ballet Company has a long history of performing at the Ford, and this year will focus its showcase on the many cultural aspects surrounding the ceremony of marriage. 'We forget that in some places, a wedding can mean different things,' Vences told The Times. 'It could go from the closing of a business, to a ritual that represents a different stage for a couple going from noviazgo into the beginning of a family. That has to be a sacred ritual and an event where the community has to participate.' The Aug. 16 program will focus on parts of Mexico, such as Yucatán, Morelos, Oaxaca, Nayarit, Michoacán and Jalisco. But the show will also highlight the pre-Columbian cultures found throughout the country. 'In the opening, the Mayan piece, we have the closing of a business,' Vences explained, 'but the beginning of the fall of a town in the Yucatán — and the fall of the city of Chichén Itzá after a wedding.' Perhaps the most standout feature of the program is the world premiere of the dance company's tribute to the Muxes de Oaxaca — a third gender that has been historically recognized in Zapotec culture. 'I was visiting the coast of Oaxaca, where the Muxes are, and I had a different approach to seeing some of these people, to the point where later, when there was a series about the Muxes on Netflix that brought the topic with such an intensity ... I said it's time to work on this,' Vences said. The process of respectfully and fully representing the social status and cultural space that Muxes take up required constant consideration to shape the section. 'It is a very interesting way of approaching the history of a group that seems to be very lonely and how were we going to artistically represent some of the feelings of members of this population that doesn't have a 'regular' life,' Vences said. 'They cannot have a 'regular' serenade. They cannot have a 'regular' wedding. How can [we] represent that creatively onstage?'
