Frida Kahlo, 16 October 1932. In this portrait taken by her father, clothing, jewellery and posture already appear as elements of a consciously fashioned public identity. Photograph: Guillermo Kahlo. Public Domain, via Wikimedia Commons.

DOKUNST

With Viva Frida, the Museo de Arte Latinoamericano de Buenos Aires presents, for the first time in South America, more than 300 personal objects and documents that belonged to Frida Kahlo. Clothing, jewellery, painted orthopaedic corsets, cosmetics, photographs, letters and archival materials form the core of the exhibition, curated by Circe Henestrosa in collaboration with Gannit Ankori. Following presentations at institutions including the Victoria and Albert Museum in London and the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, the exhibition will remain on view at MALBA until March 2027. Many of these objects were rediscovered only in 2004, inside a room at the Casa Azul that had remained sealed for decades. The exceptionally long queues during the opening weekend confirm Kahlo’s undiminished popularity; more significant, however, is the exhibition’s decision to examine not only her painting, but also the material construction of a public persona that has long since expanded beyond the work itself.

The degree to which this persona was consciously fashioned is already apparent in the portrait taken by her father, Guillermo Kahlo, in 1932: jewellery, hairstyle, clothing, posture and direct gaze appear not as incidental details, but as elements of a precisely controlled image. Viva Frida develops this idea through the garments that have survived. The Tehuana dress favoured by Kahlo invoked Indigenous Mexican traditions and a matriarchal culture, while also articulating political allegiance, gender and social position. At the same time, its long skirts and loose blouses helped conceal physical injuries and medical supports. For Kahlo, clothing was therefore neither mere adornment nor the precursor of a posthumous brand aesthetic. It became a language through which the artist did not deny a body marked by illness and pain, but determined how that body would enter the field of vision.

The opening coincides with MALBA’s 25th anniversary and a far-reaching institutional transformation. The museum’s founder, Eduardo Costantini, is transferring 17 major works from his private collection, together with the more than 1,200 works of the Daros Latinamerica Collection, into MALBA’s holdings, bringing the museum’s collection to almost 3,000 works. Among the donations is Kahlo’s Diego y yo from 1949, acquired by Costantini at Sotheby’s in 2021 for 34.9 million dollars and now shown alongside Self-Portrait with Monkey and Parrot from 1942 and the 1932 lithograph Untitled (The Abortion). A former auction record is thus being transformed from a privately owned trophy into part of an institutional collection accessible to the public—at the very moment when MALBA is preparing to nearly double its exhibition space by 2030 according to plans by Frida Escobedo.

It is precisely this concentration on Kahlo’s personal belongings that makes Viva Frida more than a crowd-drawing anniversary exhibition. It demonstrates that Kahlo understood her body, photography and clothing as interconnected forms of artistic self-determination. Yet a tension remains: the closer the museum attempts to bring visitors to the private Frida through corsets, cosmetics and letters, the greater the risk that these objects will become relics of a global icon. Whether Viva Frida truly redirects attention towards the artist or further intensifies the cult surrounding her will therefore not be determined by the length of the queue, but by what remains visible of Kahlo once the already familiar icon has, for a moment, receded from view.

Impressum

Angaben gemäß § 5 TMG:

Esteban Velazquez v. Wilhelm

Badergraben 16 04808 Wurzen

Kontakt:

Verantwortlich für den Inhalt nach § 18 Abs.2 MstV:

+49 15776999372

Esteban Velazquez v. Wilhelm

info@dokunstmag.de

www.dokunstmag.de

Badergraben 16 04808 Wurzen

Datenschutz