Inside the Frida Kahlo exhibition at the V&A

The V&A has opened a retrospective on Mexican artist and style muse Frida Kahlo, which tells the story of her life through more than 200 of her personal artefacts and clothing, many of which haven’t been displayed outside of Mexico.

The ‘Frida Kahlo: Making Her Self Up’ exhibition places emphasis on her intimate possessions, many of which were discovered in 2004, after being locked away in the ‘Blue House’ for 50 years following her death in 1954.

The discovery took historians four years to catalogue the 6,000 photographs, 12,000 documents and 300 items found, and these included personal items such as outfits, jewellery, cosmetics, medicines and her medical corsets, many of which are on displaying including her choice of lipstick, Revlon ‘Everything’s Rosy’ incase your were interested.

The exhibition explores every aspect of Kahlo’s life, from her childhood growing up with a German father and Mexican mother to her illnesses from contraction of polio at the age of six to her near-fatal accident at 18, which rendered her bed-bound and immobilised for protracted periods of time, to her marriage to artists Diego Rivera, and her sense of cultural pride in being Mexican...

The focus is definitely on her iconic image, her clothes, her make-up routine, and even her prosthetic leg, complete with an embellished red boot on it. But as nice as it was to see Kahlo’s traditional Mexican clothing and statement jewellery, as such an influential female figure of the art world, someone who is known globally as a revolutionary and bold artist, some visitors to this exhibition might be a little disappointed that the focus wasn’t on her art work, which is a little lacking...

Claire Wilcox, senior curator of Fashion at the V&A and the exhibition curator, said in the exhibition show notes: “A countercultural and feminist symbol, this show offers a powerful insight into how Frida Kahlo constructed her own identity. This exhibition is a rare opportunity for visitors, offering unique access to an archive that has never left Mexico before.”

Full review here