‘Kahlo: An Expanded Body’ at Parrish Art Museum

The work of famed Mexican artist Frida Kahlo is well known around the world, as are many elements of the artist’s personal life — from her socialist political views and a fiery marriage to fellow artist Diego Rivera, who was more than 20 years her senior, to autobiographical paintings that often referenced intimate details of her life.

Though colorful and even whimsical, Kahlo’s artwork often belied a difficult reality and the many health issues that plagued the artist. Born in Mexico City in 1907, Kahlo’s physical difficulties included a bout of childhood polio as well as a horrific bus accident that occurred when she was just 18 and left her with permanent pain and physical difficulties. She also suffered miscarriages and unsuccessful medical treatments, topics that were rarely discussed in that era but were on full display in her paintings.

Now, a new exhibition on view at the Parrish Art Museum offers insight into the artist’s psyche through a somewhat different and very personal lens, thanks to Kahlo’s grandniece, Mexican artist Cristina Kahlo-Alcala.

“Kahlo: An Expanded Body” explores Frida Kahlo’s life via her dramatic medical history and the impact it had on her work. The exhibition, which opened at the Parrish in late November and runs through April 2, taps into archives from Kahlo-Alcala’s family, and highlights more than 100 objects from Kahlo’s life, many which have never been seen before.

Using private family files as source material, the Parrish exhibition, which was organized by Parrish Art Museum Executive Director Mónica Ramírez-Montagut with guest curator Kahlo-Alcala, offers a glimpse of a very intimate side of Frida Kahlo. Letters and postcards included in the show highlight the artist’s relationship with friends, lovers and doctors. Also on view are photographs of Kahlo and her inner circle by Mexican and international photographers including Lola Álvarez Bravo, Florence Arquin, Gisele Freund, Guillermo Kahlo, Antonio Kahlo and Nickolas Muray. Then there are Kahlo’s graphic medical records and documents that Kahlo-Alcala has used to create her own artwork that addresses her great aunt’s health challenges, as well as a large-scale fabric heart sculpture by María and Tolita Figueroa.

In a recent interview, Ramírez-Montagut explained that the concept for the exhibition began three years ago when she was spending a lot of time in her native Mexico with her ailing father. There, she was introduced to Kahlo-Alcala who told Ramírez-Montagut that she had medical information related to her famous relative, whom she had never met, but was unsure of what to do with it.

“She had access to the clinical files of Frida Kahlo, so we worked to materialize it,” said Ramírez-Montagut, who in collaboration with Kahlo-Alcala presented an earlier version of this show at Michigan State University. “We learned a lot and decided to revamp it substantially for the Parrish. This exhibition has a different concept and perspective and is a journey through Frida’s body — symbolically, physically, metaphorically — as presented by her. How did she talk about her body? We polished it with more points of access.”

Ironically, Frida Kahlo had planned to study medicine before turning to art and for obvious reasons, health care remained a dominant theme throughout her life. She began painting at age 18 after the bus accident that severely damaged her pelvis and spine left her in a full body cast for months. The Parrish show opens with a chronicle of Kahlo’s stays at the American British Cowdray Hospital in Mexico City and images of the facility’s staff, exterior and interior — including the operating room where many of her procedures took place. The opposite gallery wall features images of Kahlo from periods of vitality, alternating with portraits revealing the physical toll of ill health over a lifetime, culminating with images of the artist on her death bed. Kahlo died in July 1954 at age 47, and because Kahlo-Alcala never met her, Ramírez-Montagut feels she was able to approach the material with an objectivity that otherwise would not have been possible.

“Cristina said she had never shown the photo of Frida on her death bed, but given the tone and the safe environment we’ve crafted with a balanced approach, said this is the first time she felt comfortable showing this in public,” Ramírez-Montagut said. “It’s a safe space for looking at chronic pain in a compassionate way and someone who has a personal take on the image.”

Another gallery at the Parrish is dedicated to the theme of the heart through a variety of depictions, including the 30-foot-high red heart sculpture “Unos cuantos Piquetitos” (“A few small nips”) created by María and Tolita Figueroa in 1976, which is suspended from the ceiling. The piece references Kahlo’s painting of the same name and evokes the artist’s practice of painting the heart outside of the body. Other works on view focus on family and childhood through photos from the early 20th century, and group photographs from the 1930s through 1950s featuring Diego Rivera and Leon Trotsky, Kahlo’s one-time lover. In addition, a 1951 photograph shows Kahlo in a wheelchair next to her doctor and friend Juan Farill. Alongside it is the painting “Self-Portrait with the Portrait of Doctor Farill” (1951), in which Kahlo sits next to her painting of Farill while holding a heart-shaped palette as a symbol of her affection.

Taken as a whole, beyond highlighting some of the lesser known aspects of a famous artist’s personal life, Ramírez-Montagut notes that a primary goal of “Kahlo: An Expanded Body” is to also connect with a significant year-round population on the East End.

“It materializes the new vision I have for the museum to make sure that in spring and fall we are designing exhibitions that target and serve in-depth our local and immediate communities,” explained Ramírez-Montagut. “While it maintains the high-caliber name recognition that the Parrish is well-known for, also embedded in the vision is a handful of activities for children and young adults with the idea that we can serve our school districts.

“We work closely with five school districts, four of which have a majority population of Hispanic and Latino students learning English,” she continued. “We’re hoping that by presenting Frida Kahlo, they can see themselves or familiar cultures. It will signal that we acknowledge them in our community and they’re valuable to pay attention to — and we’re customizing an exhibition for them for perhaps the first time in their lives.

“I think art is intimidating for some. We know that some folks feel, wrongly, that they need to know about art in order to have a visit,” she added. “This Frida Kahlo exhibition is important to me as it signals an intentionality to be accessible and welcoming to diverse audiences year round.”

To that end, among the many ways this exhibition is reaching younger visitors is through an activity station where people are encouraged to create their own self-portraits.

“Every day, we get six to 10 self-portraits. Visitors of all ages are taking part, and it’s interesting and fun and it allows people to see themselves on the wall.”

The exhibition also features a large-scale reproduction of the artist’s 1940 painting “The Dream (the Bed),” alongside an actual bed mimicking the painting. Nearby are photographs of hospital gowns similar to those Kahlo wore and used to clean her brushes as she painted in bed, as well as a table with postcards for children to create and share in a community art initiative.

Through the many unique and telling objects on display in “Kahlo: An Expanded Body,” Ramírez-Montagut hopes that audiences will come to understand Frida Kahlo in a new and far more complex way.

“She became a character, like a film character. You knew her image but you didn’t know her life. I think people will leave this exhibition understanding Frida better as a human and what moved her to do the art she did,” said Ramírez-Montagut. “Cristina said, ‘Growing up, I didn’t think her paintings were pretty. I thought they were weird.’ This exhibition helps you understand that this is how they had to look. It’s also important to understanding she was a woman in chronic pain. She was painting in bed with special easels, yet she shaped art in the 20th century. She challenged the notion of ableism, and the idea that only fully able people able to contribute.

“Art is a tremendous vehicle to help us navigate isolation and confinement and troubled times. It was her livelihood, but for many folks it’s a lifesaving tool. It’s that important to have art in our lives.”

“Kahlo: An Expanded Body” is organized by Parrish Art Museum Executive Director Mónica Ramírez-Montagut and guest curator Cristina Kahlo-Alcala, with support from guest assistant curator Javier Roque Vázquez Juarez, curatorial assistant and publications coordinator Kaitlin Halloran and curatorial fellow Brianna L. Hernández. The exhibition runs through April 2, at the Parrish Art Museum, 279 Montauk Highway Water Mill. For detail, visit parrishart.org.