A new Museum of Fine Arts, Houston exhibit features 35 works of art by Frida Kahlo. (Daniel Arrhakis/CC BY-NC-SA 2.0).
A new exhibit at the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston is dedicated to the works of Frida Kahlo. Here’s what you need to know.
On Jan. 19, the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston opened its latest exhibit, “Frida: The Making of an Icon,” featuring 35 artworks by famed painter Frida Kahlo. Some of her iconic self-portraits will be on display, as will photographs, sculptures, and paintings by other artists “who mined Kahlo’s paintings and personal history to claim her as their own,” per Houston Public Media.
Following her death in 1954, Kahlo’s works grew in popularity until she eventually became a pop culture icon. Her likeness has adorned countless items from coffee mugs to journals and everything in between. This is a stark contrast to how she was perceived during her lifetime. As the MFAH put it, she was “practically unknown to mainstream audiences” while she was still alive.
The idea behind the MFAH exhibit was to take a closer look at Kahlo’s artistic and personal journey, and how, over time, she became the global icon she is today. Speaking about the historic collection in a news release, curator Mari Carmen Ramírez wrote, “‘Frida: The Making of an Icon’ attempts to separate Frida Kahlo the artist from Frida Kahlo the phenomenon. In exploring that process, the exhibition re-establishes Kahlo’s own identity, and asserts her persistent relevance to contemporary art as well as activism over the past 70 years.”
In addition to displaying Kahlo’s work, an entire gallery, dubbed “Fridamania,” is dedicated to showcasing the commercialization and pop-culture fanaticism surrounding the Mexican-born artist. 200 items of Kahlo-related merchandise will be on display in that gallery. The exhibit runs until May 17, after which point it will move to London’s Tate Modern in June. If you’d like to catch Kahlo’s works at the MFAH between now and then, we have all the details for you below.
Details about “Frida: The Making of an Icon”
The director of the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, Gary Tinterow, said of the Frida Kahlo exhibit, “This Museum has been at the forefront of Latin American art since the founding in 2001 of the International Center for the Arts of the Americas. While there have been numerous Frida Kahlo exhibitions around the world since the 1970s, Mari Carmen Ramírez has leveraged the unparalleled resources of our ICAA to document and assemble a fascinating group of objects that attest to the enduring appeal of Kahlo’s art and life.”
Admission to view the exhibit is free for children under 12 years of age. Museum admission for adults, seniors, and youth between the ages of 13 and 18 is $10 per person. Tickets can be purchased in advance here. When you click that link, all you’ll need to do is select the date you wish to visit the MFAH and how many tickets you need.
Please note that “Frida: The Making of an Icon” is a PG-13 rated exhibition. Per the MFAH’s website, “it includes art that expresses themes and imagery with nudity, violence, smoking, and sensuality. Viewer discretion is advised.”
