Frida Kahlo. Now a feminist icon and famed for her work and free spirit, but in her own time mostly known as ‘the wife of’. An American newspaper from 1931 wrote that her work only had meaning because it was painted by the spouse of Diego Rivera. These days Rivera has been forgotten and the art of Kahlo is widespread, a part of pop culture as it is even seen on bags and shirts.

Bozar, the Brussels museum of fine arts, is organising a three-month Mexican festival, in remembrance of 200 years of Mexican independence and a 100 years of Mexican revolution. The exposition of the life and work of Frida Kahlo is fully part of this. Nineteen paintings, six drawings and a sketch – all property of the Museo Dolores Olmedo – are presented together with slideshows of pictures and journals in the small cellar of Bozar. The exposition gives an intimate overview of Kahlo’s artistic career, from early works such as ‘El Camión’ to the masterly and probably best known ‘Autorretrato con changuito’, self portrait with little monkey.

Let’s briefly report the bad news first. The hour visitors get to view the works suffises, but alas the exposition room is too small to harbour the 150 people allowed in per hour. Only during the last twenty minutes there was time to view the pieces quietly and without too much hustling. But don’t let this keep you from this unique opportunity of viewing Frida Kahlo’s original work: it is definitely worth it.

PAINTER BY ACCIDENT

The young Frida wanted to be a doctor. Because of a tragic bus accident at the age of seventeen which she barely survived, she was confronted with hospitals from a patient’s point of view for the rest of her live. When aware of this biographical episode, ‘El Camión’, the small and naïve looking painting which opens the exposition, acquires a penetrating connotation. Her paintings and life are interwoven to such a degree that they almost cannot be seen separately. Because of the obligated time in bed after her accident, in which she broke about every bone there is to break in a human body, she started painting. Kahlo literally became a painter by accident, but as she said herself: “Painting completed my life”.

Even without this knowledge, her works intrigues. The bright colours and unconventional meanings – Kahlo as martyr, Kahlo naked in a hospital bed, surrounded by uteruses, broken hips, hospital machines and a foetus, Kahlo as a child with the face of an adult in the arms of a masked but naked nurse – talk for themselves. The ample self portraits seems to hint to a bit of narcissism, but the mirror hanging above her bed - in which she spent most of her time and her painting – seems a more plausible explanation.

OWN REALITY

She strongly revolted against the European surrealists, who – impressed by her work – tried to enlist her for their movement. “Never have I painted a dream” she said, “I only imagined my own reality”. The Mexican culture appealed to her as a communist and defender of the Mexican revolution and this is quite clear in her work, next to symbolic and as surrealistic interpretable elements. Pre-Columbian themes such as fertility and the favourite Kahlo theme ‘fertilisation of life by death’ recur regularly. The Pre-Columbian fertility symbolism is also adapted on her own situation by connecting a dead cactus – symbol of life and immortality – to a foetus. Kahlo’s uterus was pierced during her accident, which lead to some very painful abortions and miscarriages. Central in the work of Frida Kahlo is the theme of suffering, and not only her own.

In this exposition a powerful and strong-willed woman is presented, who had to learn to live with the limitations existence posed upon her. Worth the trip! |

Frida Kahlo y su mundo. Bozar, Brussels. Seen on February 13th, 2010. Exposition is running until April 18th, 2010. More information at www.bozar.be.