Frida Kahlo: Making Her Self Up
V& A Museum, London Until 4 November 020 7942 2000 vam.ac.uk
In1954, following the death of his artist wife, Frida Kahlo, Mexican muralist Diego Rivera shut her possessions in a bathroom at the Blue House – the couple’s Mexico City home – and demanded it remain locked until 15 years after his death. Rivera died in 1957, but the bathroom was not opened until 2004, when its contents were finally revealed to the world.
More than 200 of the objects once hidden away in the Blue House are now on show at the V& A – the first exhibition outside of Mexico to display Frida Kahlo’s clothes and intimate possessions.
Personal letters, pre-Columbian necklaces strung by Kahlo herself, vividly coloured cosmetics and distinctive garments are among the items on show, some of which have never been on display before. Examples of intricately hand-painted plaster corsets and prosthetics worn by Kahlo after a near-fatal bus accident in 1925 and the amputation of her right leg in 1953 will also be on show, alongside photographs and personal artefacts.
The exhibition will also explore how Kahlo empowered herself through her art and dress, using her striking appearance as a political statement, as well as examining the impact of her devastating accident, miscarriages and childhood polio on her work, life and relationships.