In 1984, the Mexican government declared the art of Frida Kahlo (1907–54) to be an ‘artistic monument of the nation’ – that is, her works were no longer permitted to leave Mexico except on temporary loan. ‘Fridamania’ had already taken root on both sides of the Atlantic and since then both Kahlo’s art and her visage have attained a level of fame that few 20th-century painters could claim. The government-mandated scarcity of Kahlo’s work on the art market has meant that sweeping retrospectives are rare; curators wanting to present her in a new light have to get creative. This exhibition in Houston, which travels to Tate Modern in June, includes only 35 works by Kahlo and is far more interested in the influence she has exerted on artists around the world (19 January–17 May). As well as examining her path to becoming a pop-culture phenomenon, it brings together 120 artworks by five generations of artists to explore the many ways in which artists and activists have been inspired by both her art and her personality – or at least, by their sense of it.
Find out more from the Museum of Fine Arts Houston’s website.
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