Frida Kahlo : Au-Delà Des Apparences

Exhibition at the Palais Galliera, Paris, 15 September 2022 - 5 March 2023

Frida Kahlo (1907-1954) saw her appearance as a means of expressing her identity and political concerns: following a serious accident when she was 18, the Mexican artist devoted herself to painting and adopted traditional clothing, which enabled her to assert her Mexicanness, but also to deal with her disability.

Just after the artist's death, her personal effects were sealed off in Casa Azul, the house where she was born and raised, by her husband, Diego Rivera. Half a century later, her collection of clothes, jewellery, cosmetics and other personal items - correspondence, accessories and medical prostheses - was found in trunks, cupboards, drawers, the bathroom and the cellar of the "blue house".

This exhibition catalogue offers a new perspective on the artist's history. It shows her wardrobe, her traditional Mexican clothing and her famous self-portraits: an unprecedented combination that allows us to understand how Frida Kahlo constructed her identity through the way she presented and represented herself.