Academic literature on the topic 'Kahlo, Frida Criticism and interpretation'

Interviewed in 2004, designer duo Viktor and Rolf outlined their ambivalence towards fashion exhibitions suggesting that ‘somehow life is taken out of the subject’ (2008, cited in Teunissen, ‘Understanding Fashion through the Museum in Melchior, MR, 2014). Garments seeking spectator attention within the museum space are often perceived as static entities devoid of their original function as embodied artefacts. There is no denying an inert aura pervades listless materials that have supposedly lost their agency, now confined to the vaults of the museum-as-mausoleum. In their re-purposed role of performing as reminders of a life now departed, this article considers curatorial strategies that seek to revive a living presence in garment display with specific reference to the remodelling of Frida Kahlo in the V&A exhibition ‘Frida Kahlo: Making Her Self Up (2018)’. Addressing Dudley’s suggestion in Museum Objects: Experiencing the Properties of Things (2012: 19) that an artefact’s ‘fundamental material characteristics’ should be at the heart of contextual interpretation, the role that an object’s material properties can play in the re-materializing of embodiment is evaluated. In the V&A exhibition, a narrative emerges on clothing as an agent that conceals vulnerable corporeality. Sartorial practices armoured Kahlo’s body and the role material entities can play in containing and preserving the illusion of corporeal substance will be investigated. Given this premise, it seems wholly appropriate to focus on the contribution that the mannequin can make to this conceptual framework. After all, it is an artefact with a central occupation of establishing bodily integrity in the display of clothing. Reiterating Clark’s suggestion in The Textile Reader (2012) that the mannequin contributes to the vocabulary of a curatorial brief, this article proposes that this artefact can interrogate the tensions that exist between Kahlo’s sartorial practices and her abject body. Substantiating Appadurai’s premise of material objects’ agency in The Social Life of Things (2001[1986]), the exhibition arguably employs the once humble tailor’s dummy in a significant role, thereby reconstructing its dominant function of embodying fabric in the museum.

At her death in 1954, Frida Kahlo was known as little more than the wife of muralist Diego Rivera. Since then her art and personae have taken on a cult-like following and she has become an icon of popular culture. Thus far Frida's repute has stretched across three decades, from the 1970s, 1980s, and into the 1990s. Frida's popularity is viewed as primarily emerging from the Women's Movement of the 1970s. However, interest from many other groups have carried her image into the 1980s and 1990s. Aside from the Women’s Movement, Frida’s popularity reflects a growing interest in Mexico, specifically the “romanticized” image of Mexico, in the wake of rising international relations between Mexico and the United States. Each subsequent exhibit of Frida’s work brought with it a plethora of articles and exhibition catalogues. By the late 1980s books on Frida’s biography and her paintings began flooding the market along with articles from various periodicals, from fashion, to medical, to women's studies journals. Numerous other publications on Frida have included calendars, postcards, and a cookbook. A book of Frida's letters and her diary were published in 1995. The associations around Frida’s name have created the legend of her personality. She is viewed as a genius painter, one who expressed her emotions and life on canvas, who spoke from her heart and who has become remembered as a martyred saint. Scholars and the general public alike have latched onto Frida’s image, making her into more than a mere artist, rather into a remarkably insightful and brave individual. This popular myth has been supported by Frida's own lifestyle, by her flamboyant attire, scandalous relationships, and internationally recognized friendships. Frida was, however, an individual who suffered from the same insecurities that much of the population does: insecure in love and acceptance. Frida had the ability to mask her emotions of insecurity with her physical pain, which she then exercised on the canvas. It is this ability to deal with her emotional pain that has brought her life and work to the cult-like status that her memory now enjoys.