backstory: Frida Kahlo
Last week, the Neuberger went on an ArtTrek to the Frida Kahlo exhibit at the Brooklyn Museum where we had a great tour from the show’s curator, Lisa Small.
Growing up as a young curator at the National Museum of Women in the Arts in Washington DC, I became familiar with Frida Kahlo through one of her greatest works: Self-Portrait Dedicated to Leon Trotsky.
I’ve long known the story of the artist’s accident—the trolley crash, the impalement, that she painted in bed using an overhead easel and mirror. Many of her paintings convey that trauma, but in the Brooklyn show, you can see the plaster corsets she wore to keep her spine straight, corsets that she hand-painted as she was wearing them. These objects made me think differently about her approach to “self-portraiture,” and particularly about the literal painted self.
I’ve long known the story of the artist’s accident—the trolley crash, the impalement, that she painted in bed using an overhead easel and mirror. Many of her paintings convey that trauma, but in the Brooklyn show, you can see the plaster corsets she wore to keep her spine straight, corsets that she hand-painted as she was wearing them. These objects made me think differently about her approach to “self-portraiture,” and particularly about the literal painted self.
Tracy Fitzpatrick
Director, Neuberger Museum of Art