The de Young Museum Is Showing A Frida Kahlo Exhibit—Here's What To Expect

Iconic Mexican painter Frida Kahlo’s work returns to the Bay Area via an exhibition of personal possessions, paintings, photographs and drawings at the de Young Museum.

Frida Kahlo, “Self-Portrait Dedicated to Dr. Leo Eloesser” (1940)

Until Feb. 7, the de Young Museum is holding an exhibition featuring Frida Kahlo’s belongings, photographs and paintings. Called Frida Kahlo: Appearances Can Be Deceiving, the exhibit contains many personal items on display for the first time, including the revered Mexican artist’s medical corsets, prosthetics, letters, garments, cosmetics and jewelry that were originally locked away after Kahlo’s death in 1954.

Rebozo with rapacejo (knotted fringe), silk skirt with Chinese embroidered panel and holán (ruffle)

The exhibition also displays 34 of her drawings and paintings, as well as a single lithograph.

Imogen Cunningham, “Frida Kahlo Rivera, painter and wife of Diego Rivera” (1931)

The exhibition is split into six parts; the first few take a look at Kahlo’s childhood and adolescence and La Casa Azul or The Blue House, the home in which Kahlo was born, died and lived the majority of her life. Visitors are then presented with an exploration of Kahlo’s transformative visits to San Francisco in 1930 and 1940. The final galleries feature the artist’s private objects, photographs of Kahlo, her various paintings and drawings, and her hypnotizing self-portraits alongside her treasured clothing and accessories.

A piece in the exhibit.

Overall, the show seeks to explore the ways in which Kahlo fashioned her identity and personal image through her appearance and self-portraits, and how a number of factors, including her gender, politics, disability, emotional traumas and Mexican heritage, shaped her work and life. 50 Hagiwara Tea Garden Drive, San Francisco, deyoung.famsf.org