Professional Documents
Culture Documents
This selection of photographs traces the life and many guises of the formidable and exotic Mexican artist
Frida Kahlo (1907–1954). She and her husband, famed Mexican muralist Diego Rivera (1886–1957), stood
at the vortex of the most important political, social, and cultural upheavals in the twentieth century
including the Mexican Revolution (1910–1920), the rise of international Communism, the development of
Surrealism, and the Mexican muralist tradition that celebrated indigenous and folk heritage. These
compelling images bring into focus the extraordinary world of Frida as both person and icon.
“Photographs instigate, confirm, and seal legends. Seen through photographs, people become icons of
themselves,” wrote philosopher and writer Susan Sontag. Frida was one of the creators of her own
legendary stature in how she composed her life. She made the self-portrait the main theme of her painting,
explaining: "I paint self-portraits because I am so often alone... because I am the subject I know best." She
also effectively manipulated her self-image before the lens through her gaze, pose, and the carefully
constructed symbolism of her clothing, jewelry, and hairstyle.
Frida sat for portraits by some of the most renowned photographers of the twentieth century including
Edward Weston, Imogen Cunningham, and Manual Álvarez Bravo, as well as leading photojournalists such
as Gisele Freund, Bernard Silberstein, Nickolas Muray, and Fritz Henle. Her private side is also revealed
here in photographs taken by her friends and family.
The exhibition is organized around several themes: Frida and family, Frida as icon, Frida as artist, the playful
Frida and the sick Frida who endured chronic pain and numerous surgeries throughout her life. Images of
Frida with animals document the menagerie found in her household and also in her paintings. Frida and
Diego made a charismatic couple and the exhibition includes a number of photographs of the two together.
These photographs are from the collection of dealer and specialist in Latin American photography, Spencer
Throckmorton. Twenty years ago he began to assemble his collection that now includes over one hundred
images of Frida, many of them rarely seen.
This exhibition was organized by Throckmorton Fine Art, Inc., New York, New York
and is generously sponsored by Helen and Peter Bing and The Paul G. Allen Family Foundation.
Adjacent Exhibition
The photographs of Frida Kahlo as well as the range of people who took them, are a testament to the
power of the colorful and complex self-image she created. Not only was her image and persona attractive
to her contemporaries, it has also been a source of inspiration and adoration for legions of admirers since
her death. Particularly in the last two decades, Frida’s image has become ubiquitous—one finds her face
on coffee mugs, calendars, key chains, matchbooks, mousepads, and more. She has truly been transformed
into a pop culture icon.
Artists have also been intrigued by Frida. Whether because of her art, her beauty, her politics, her
perseverance in the face of pain and suffering, her championing of Mexican culture, her unconventional
marriage to Diego Rivera, or her iconic status, artists have found inspiration in Frida.
This selection of artwork is by Northwest artists who have created work that is connected to Frida, whether
it is through the direct use of her image or through less obvious means. Several of these artists are
originally from Mexico and see Frida as a symbol of a strong and vibrant Mexico. Others are interested in
exploring her celebrity status as an icon of popular culture. Many of these artists pay homage to Frida’s
artwork by using her self-portraits or applying her artistic approach in their own work. All of these works
are a testament to Frida Kahlo’s long-lasting influence as an artist, a human being, and an icon.
Frida Kahlo Timeline
1907–1954
1907 July 6, Magdalena Carmen Frieda Kahlo y Calderón is born in Coyoacán, Mexico. Her father,
Guillermo Kahlo, was of Hungarian-German Jewish descent and her mother, Matilde Calderón was
Catholic and of Spanish and Indian descent. Frida drops the ‘e’ in her name during the rise of
Nazism.
1910 Mexican revolution begins and continues through 1920. Frida later claims to have been born in
1910 so that her birth would coincide with the beginning of the revolution.
1922 Frida first meets artist Diego Rivera while a student at the prestigious National Preparatory School.
1925 Frida is involved in a streetcar accident that inflicts serious permanent injuries and lifelong pain.
During her long convalescence, she begins to paint.
1929 At age 22, Frida marries Diego Rivera, 42, and accompanies him while he works on his mural
projects in San Francisco, Detroit and New York City for the next three years.
1931 Frida meets photographer Nickolas Muray and begins intermittent affair that will
last eight years.
1937 Exiled communist leader and writer Leon Trotsky and his wife arrive in Mexico and stay in Frida and
Diego’s home for two years.
1938 Frida meets French surrealist and critic André Breton in Mexico during his visit.
Frida has first solo exhibition at Julien Levy Gallery in New York City.
1939 Frida travels to Paris where she is included in an exhibition organized by André Breton and artist
Marcel Duchamp.
The Louvre Museum purchases Frida’s self-portrait, The Frame (1938), the first Mexican painting in
its collection.
1950 After enduring 30 previous surgeries, Frida has an additional two surgeries on her spine and is
hospitalized for nine months.
1953 Frida’s first exhibition in Mexico is hosted by friend and photographer Lola Álvarez Bravo at the
Mexico City Gallery of Contemporary Art.
1954 July 13, Frida dies at her home in Casa Azul (The Blue House) in Coyoacán at age 47. Diego dies
three years later at age 70.
BRIEF DESCRIPTION: Students will first identify icons in our modern culture, discuss how an
icon is created, and brainstorm what each icon represents. Second, students will look at
photographs of Frida Kahlo from the exhibition Frida Kahlo: Images of an Icon, and discuss the
elements of the images that helped to develop Frida’s icon status.
KEY CONCEPTS:
Iconography
VOCABULARY:
Icon: An image (or person) that represents a larger idea
ARTS EALRS:
1.1 Understand arts concepts and vocabulary
1.3 Understand and apply arts styles from various artist, cultures, and times
1.4 Apply audience skills in a variety of arts settings and performances
2.3 Apply a responding process to an arts presentation: Engage, Describe and Interpret
4.2 Understand that the arts shape and reflect culture and history.
4.4 Demonstrate and analyze the connections among the arts and other content areas.
RESOURCES:
Photographs from the exhibition, Frida Kahlo: Images of an Icon:
Guillermo Kahlo, Frida Kahlo Following Her Mother’s Death, 1932
Bernard Silberstein, Frida Kahlo Painting “The Wounded Table,” 1940
Bernice Kolko, Frida Kahlo in the Garden, 1953-1954
LESSON DESCRIPTION:
INTRODUCTION:
Prompt: What is an icon?
Students brainstorm examples and possible definitions for the word Icon:
Prompts: Are there icons on computers? (Internet Explorer, Word, Safari)
Are there icons for brands of clothing? (Izod, Nike, Roxi, Billabong)
Can people be an icon?
An Icon is an Image that represents a larger idea.
Introduction to Frida:
Teacher, show students the photographs of Frida Kahlo included with this Curriculum Guide.
Second, Students begin to interpret the meaning of the image. Prompt: What does this
photograph tell us about Frida Kahlo?
How would describe this person? How do you think she’d feeling? Where does this person
come from? (traditional culture, communism, revolution, feminine, strength, independence)
EXTENSION ACTIVITIES:
Students read one of the biographies of Frida Kahlo (see Additional Resources in Curriculum
Guide)
Each student brings in an image of someone they feel is a modern icon (from a magazine,
internet, written description of TV image.) Analyze the image. What do you see? Clothing,
body language, action, setting, relationship to other people in the image, text or verbal
communication. Etc.
EXHIBITION: Frida Kahlo: Images of an Icon
LESSON TITLE: Post-Visit Lesson: Portraits vs. Self-Portraits
GRADES: 6-12
ESSENTIAL QUESTION: How do the photographic portraits of Frida Kahlo compare to her own
painted self-portraits?
BRIEF DESCRIPTION: Students select a theme from the exhibition and research examples of this
theme in Frida’s paintings. Students compare how this theme was portrayed through
photographs to the way that Frida communicates this same theme in her art.
KEY CONCEPTS:
Comparison of portraiture vs. self-portraiture
EALRS:
2.3 Apply a responding process to an arts presentation: Engage, Describe, Interpret, and
Evaluate
4.2 Understand that the arts shape and reflect culture and history.
4.1 Demonstrate and analyze the connections among the arts disciplines.
RESOURCES:
Books:
Frida Kahlo: Portraits of an Icon, Margaret Hooks
(New York, NY: Turner Publications; Throckmorton Fine Art, Inc. 2002)
Frida Unmasked: Portraits by Various Photographers, Edward J. Sullivan
(New York, NY; Throckmorton Fine Arts, Inc., 1995)
Frida Kahlo: The Paintings, Hayden Herrera (New York, NY; Harper Collins Publishers, 1991)
LESSON DESCRIPTION:
INTRODUCTION:
Reflect on the exhibition.
LESSON:
Students select one of the following themes from the exhibition, Frida Kahlo: Images of an Icon:
Frida and Diego
Frida and her Family
Frida as Icon
Frida the Painter
Frida’s Illness
Or, students develop their own theme from the life of Frida Kahlo.
Students select a photograph from the exhibition that demonstrates this theme. (see resource list
above)
What information about Frida Kahlo is communicated through this photograph?
Students begin by listing what they see the photograph, including, people, costume, body
language, setting, objects, etc. Second students describe the mood of the photograph and, using
the clues that they’ve listed above, students describe what they feel the photograph is saying
about Frida and this theme in her life.
What information about this theme is communicated through Frida’s own painting about
this subject?
Students select a painting by Frida that communicates this same theme. (see resource list above)
Students compare the painting to the photograph(s) in the exhibition. Beginning again by listing
what they see in the painting, including colors, objects, body language, etc. Second, describing
the mood of the painting and what they feel the painting is communicating.
CONCLUSION:
What do these two artworks say about this them in Frida’s life?
How does the information communicated by the photographic portrait differ from that of
Frida’s painted self-portrait?
Students compare the painting to the photograph. Students compare ways in which the
information communicated by the photograph and the painting differ.
EXTENSION ACTIVITIES:
Students extend the research project by exploring the biography of Frida Kahlo. Students
research the theme they have chosen in the life of Frida Kahlo. Students can also research the
specific time period in which the photograph and the painting were created.
Students choose a theme from Frida Kahlo’s life to which they personally relate. Students create
a self-portrait representing their own life experience around that theme.
Frida Kahlo: Images of an Icon
Vocabulary
Aztecs: a group of native people that lived in central Mexico from A.D. 1370 to 1521. They were the
founders of Mexico City.
Folk art: products, such as pottery, paintings, and sculptures created by untrained artists. Objects may be
functional or decorative.
Judas figure: large papier-mâché figure that often looks like a devil or skeleton. Traditionally it is
wrapped in fire crackers and ignited on Sabodo de Gloria.
La Casa Azul: Spanish for the “the blue house,” Fida Kahlo’s family home.
La Prepa: the National Preparatory School, Mexico City, where Kahlo went to school.
Mayans: native people who lived in southern Mexico from about A.D. 300 to 1500.
Retablo: a small folk painting made to give thanks for a miraculous recovery from illness or disaster.
Surrealism: an art movement characterized by scenes that appear absurd or dreamlike. Originating in
Europe, the movement included writers, poets, photographers, and painters.
Tehuana: a woman who comes from the region in southern Mexico called Tehuantepec. Tejuanas are
known for their long ruffled skirts and colorful embroidered blouses.
Xoloitzcuintli (show-low-its-queen-tlee): a breed of dog favored by Rivera and Kahlo. Once bred by the
Aztecs, these dogs have no fur.
Vocabulary and definitions from Frida Kahlo and Diego Rivera: Their Lives and Ideas, 24 Activites,
Carol Sabbath (Chicago, IL: Chicago Review Press, Inc., 2005)
Frida Kahlo: Images of an Icon
Photographer Biographies
The photographs of Frida Kahlo in the exhibition were taken by 19 photographers – some amateurs who were family
and friends and others who were well known professional photographers.
Mayo Brothers
The Mayo Brothers (Hermanos Mayo or Brothers of May) were a group of Spanish-born photographers who had
fought on the side of the Republicans during the Spanish Civil War. They fled fascism in Spain by emigrating to
Mexico, where they found work as photojournalists for both leftist and mainstream journals.
Additional Resources
Biographies
Elementary Grades:
Frida Kahlo: The Artist Who Painted Herself, Margaret Frith
(New York, NY: Grosset & Dunlap, 2003)
Frida Kahlo (Series: Getting to Know the World’s Greatest Artists), Mike Venzia
(New York, NY: Children’s Press, 1999)
Young Adult:
Frida Kahlo: Her Life in Paintings, Sara McIntosh Wooten.
(Berkeley Heights, NJ; Enslow Publishers Inc., 2005)
Adult:
Frida: A Biography of Frida Kahlo, Hayden Herrera
(New York, NY: Harper & Row, Publishers, Inc., 1983)
Websites
Frida Kahlo & Contemporary Thought, www.fridakahlo.it
Videos
The Life and Times of Frida Kahlo, PBS documentary by Any Stechler,
www.pbs.org/weta/fridakahlo
Art Activities
Frida Kahlo and Diego Rivera: Their Lives and Ideas, 24 Activites, Carol Sabbath
(Chicago, IL: Chicago Review Press, Inc., 2005)
Frida Kahlo: The Camera Seduced, Elena Poniatowska and Carla Stellweg
(San Francisco, CA; Chronicle Books, 1992)
I Will Never Forget You: Frida Kahlo & Nickolas Muray, Unpublished Photographs and
Letters, Saloman Grimberg
(San Francisco, CA, Chronicle Books, 2004)
Lesson Ideas
Contemporary Art and Multicultural Education, Susan Cahan and Zoya Kocur (ed.)
(New York, NY: The New Museum of Contemporary Art, 1996)