Portraits of Frida Kahlo

PORTRAITS OF FRIDA KAHLO
A Group Exhibition

Featuring Photographs By: Lola Alvarez Bravo, Manuel Alvarez Bravo, Lucienne Bloch,
Imogen Cunningham, Leo Matiz, Nickolas Muray, Emmy Lou Packard, Deigo Rivera, Bernard Silberstein.

February 20 through April 5, 2003
Opening Reception, Thursday, February 20, 7 - 9 p.m.

The Fahey/Klein Gallery is pleased to present a group exhibition, Portraits of Frida Kahlo. This exhibition of photographic portraits follows the trajectory of Mexican painter Frida Kahlo. Born in 1907, Kahlo's life wandered tumultuously for years between her friends and lovers, which included notable artists, photographers, writers, and political leaders, until her death in 1954.

Frida Kahlo reinvented herself many times. The narratives created by the photographs of her are seen in "…the paintings, the studio, the models, and the exhibits, as well as the patient, the wife, the daughter, the lover, the friend. They [photographs] permit us to peer into her bedroom, sit at her table, visit her hospital room, wander into her garden, view her collections and play with her pets…Some of these photographs conceal as much as they reveal about the woman who describes herself as la gran ocultadora or the "great concealer." While most of the images provide us with a unique opportunity to glimpse the woman behind the façade, others perhaps not so revealing, are equally fascinating in allowing us to view one of the most intriguing of the artist's creations; the construction of a self-image as carefully crafted and conceived as any of the painter's other works of art." Margaret Hooks, "Frida Kahlo, Portraits of An Icon," Turner Press/D.A.P., New York, 2002.

A self possessed Frida Kahlo says of herself, "I knew a battlefield of suffering was in my eyes. From then on I started looking directly at the lens, unflinching, unsmiling, determined to show I was a good fighter to the end."

One of the most iconic and beautiful images of Frida Kahlo by Nickolas Muray hung, ornately framed, in her studio in Mexico. "The photograph endows Frida with a Madonna-like quality in the serenity of her gaze and in the draping and folds of the magenta shawl about her shoulders…careful to prevent it from being too cloyingly sweet…strong shadow looming behind her." Margaret Hooks, "Frida Kahlo, Portraits of An Icon," Turner Press/ D.A.P., New York, 2002.

This exhibition includes many unique and rarely seen photographs.