Frida Kahlo, beyond appearances, Palais Galliera

 

Palais Galliera celebrates Frida Kahlo (1907-1954), one of the most recognized and influential artists of the 20th century. I was going to post on Frida on Thursday. Then I fell down the rabbit hole of Paris chocolates and fashion windows. 

The Kahlo exhibition is the first in Paris to focus more on her image and clothing collections and their influence than her paintings. It’s a way to understand how she built an identity by how she presented herself and represented herself in her own paintings.

For years this collection was hidden behind this green door at Casa Azul, where Kahlo was born and lived most of her life. 

After Kahlo's death in 1954, her husband, the muralist Diego Rivera, gifted Casa Azul and its contents to the Mexican people. 

But hundreds of Frida Kahlo's photographs, dresses and other belongings were locked up for 5 decades. 

Rivera asked his friend and patron, Dolores Olmedo, to keep her belongings private for 15 years. 

But motivated by jealousy of Kahlo, Olmedo instead let the collection sit idle till after her own death when they were rediscovered by chance in 2004.

Early portraits taken by her father, here at age 4 years old.  She wore elaborate hair bows even then. Frida’s mother came from a Spanish -Indigenous family from Oaxaca. Her father was a German emigrant and a leading government photographer. 

Frida, as a child, accompanied her father everywhere because of his epilepsy. Hence she developed a strong sense of her self image from the many portraits he took of her. Her house was full of mirrors. 

There are so many inspirational stories about her life. Frida did not have an easy childhood. She contracted poliomyelitis at 6 and invented an imaginary friend who would later become her double in her paintings. 

At 18, she was involved in a serious tram accident that left her bedridden for months. This is when she began to paint instead of going to medical school. She has become such a source of inspiration to artists when we are feeling blocked. 

Of course there is her mariage to her mentor in 1929, the renowned Diego Riviera. They were nicknamed, “the elephant and the dove”. 

Kahlo said,“I have had two serious accidents in my life. One was being hit by a tram. The other is Diego”. 

For her wedding she wore the traditional headdress worn by Tehuana women, the resplandor, and then painted herself wearing it. 

Kahlo remains, even today, an icon and great source of inspiration for so many designers.The first floor of the Palais Galliera, noted for their fashion exhibitions, is a collection of contemporary designers directly influenced by Kahlo including Alexander McQueen, Karl Lagerfeld for Chanel, Riccardo Tisci for Givenchy, Maria Grazia Chiuri for Dior or Rei Kawakub. 

And Jean Paul Gaultier of course who developed the multi-belted corset in 1998. Who can resist that iconic image?

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