If you’ve been following this blog for a while you’ll know that Frida Kahlo is one of my favourite artists. Not only do I love her works of art she is also a personal inspiration. I have walked in her footsteps in Mexico City, visited her childhood home and travelled the world to see her paintings. One of the things I miss most right now is being unable to travel for inspiration. Whenever I visit a new place or look at a stirring work or art, I come home filled with new creative energy and an artistic spark that only travel seems to fullfill.
Since we can’t travel right now due to covid restrictions, I wanted to find new ways to ignite that wanderlust. Even from the comfort and safety of our home! So what better way to kick this series off than with my favourite artist: Frida Kahlo. Not only are these virtual tours a great way to entertain yourself at home, but they are also an excellent resource for future trips.
Truly one of my favourite places I have ever visited is the Casa Azul, in Mexico City. This gorgeous blue house, in the cozy neighbourhood of Coyoacan, is where Frida Kahlo lived as a child. It is also where she spent the better part of the end of her life. In Mexican culture, it is good luck to be born and die and in the same place. The Casa Azul is absolutely teeming with memories, influences, and the real spirit, which was Frida Kahlo. There is genuinely no better place to give you a more intimate exploration into your life than inside the Casa Azul.
During the summer of 2020, the Casa Azul Museum took it upon themselves to capture the Casa Azul in 360 degrees. With this new technology visitors from all over the world could explore the house room by room from their own home!
You can explore the entirety of the house, peeking into her kitchen, bedroom, studio and her absolutely magical garden. The virtual tour doesn’t come with any detailed information, so you can use our self-guided tour and follow along for a complete understanding of the significance of every object, painting and plant inside.
One of the most important places to study Frida Kahlo is in her home town neighbourhood of Coyoacán. Outside the heart of Mexico City, this little village was where Frida was born, grew up, lived, and eventually died. These streets were her playground, her studio and her home. It’s here you can get a glimpse into the life of the great artist. You can read more about Coyoacan here or take a virtual tour online.
If you have never seen the 2002 biographical drama ‘Frida‘, starring Salma Hayek and directed by Julie Taymor, I would HIGHLY recommend giving it a watch! While the movie takes some liberties with her life, Julie Taymor went to great lengths to make the film look like it was plucked right out of the mind of Kahlo. Scenes contain such visually evocative sets and effects that they seem more like a moving painting than a film. Since the majority of her life was spent in Mexico, this movie takes you on a journey to the street of Mexico in the 1920s and 30s.
Suppose you are more interested in a documentary about Kahlo rather than a movie? In that case, you can watch this PBS special ‘The life and times of Frida Kahlo‘. While the special is a bit old, the fantastic personal photos they include are an intimate peek into her life and the information is unparalleled.
The Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco hosted an exhibition called ‘Frida Kahlo: Appearances Can Be Deceiving‘ in 2020. When the lockdown made it impossible for visitors to see it, they created a virtual tour of the exhibition. This allowed visitors from all over to the world to view the exhibition online.
In 2004, inside the Casa Azul, curators discovered a never before seen collection of Frida’s personal effects. Hidden inside a locked trunk were treasured items from her wardrobe, prosthetics, handmade jewellery, accessories, and also Frida’s personal photographs. The online video was directed by Benjamin Michel, an award-winning filmmaker specializing in cinematography. Because such care was taken in filming the exhibit, you really get an incredible experience of what it would be like to view it yourself.
Since many items found in the trunk were pieces of clothing, the close-up filming lets you see the smallest details and textures of the objects. Frida used clothing and accessories to create her image, which was also her armour. Her image is one of the most iconic things people associate with Frida. Even those who might not know what a painting of Frida’s might look like can easily describe her quintessential appearance.
Google’s Arts and Culture department has gone to great lengths to create an online resource for art lovers. Although they have been working on these exhibits prior to lockdown, they amped up their curations to allow art lovers to get their gallery fix! Their collection of Frida Kahlo artwork, ephemera, personal objects and more is unmatched! Over 25 different museums collaborated to create this online museum collection. Their website allows the viewer to explore the myths and legends about Frida’s life and zoom in to every inch of her incredible works of art.
One of the exhibits collects both found photographs, sketches and works of art to tell her life’s story. One of my favourite online exhibitions explores Frida’s complicated and painful yet also beautiful, relationship with her body. Frida suffered from polio as a young girl. She then experienced a life-altering bus accident later in her teens, which left her permanently disabled. And yet all this fueled her love of painting as a means to express herself from the confines of a bed. Her pain and suffering throughout her life are one of the central themes of her artwork. Understanding the context of these works is a beautiful way to learn more about art and the artist.
If you have ever been interested in an in-depth guide to her thematic paintings, then check out the stories featured in the online gallery. These do a deep dive into the significance of the smallest aspects of her works of art. Her powerful and somewhat disturbing painting entitled ‘Henry Ford Hospital‘ has long been one of my favourites, and studying every last piece of imagery included gave me some beautiful insights I had never considered before!
Suppose you are interested in learning more about the artist but don’t want to commit to reading a lengthy biography. In that case, I cannot recommend picking up the book ‘Frida Kahlo: The Story of Her Life‘ by Vanna Vinci more! This gorgeously illustrated novel blends facts and history with dreamlike and surreal sequences. Vinci creates Frida’s dramatic, romantic, tragic and painful journey to life on the page unlike ever before. I cried reading this book and was amazed at how powerful it was. The illustrations inside are so evocative you’ll want to read it over and over again. The Mexican imagery makes you feel transported and is an excellent resource for your wanderlust!
Another great way to allow yourself to feel like you’re somewhere else other than inside your home is through food. If you’re like me, one of your favourite parts of travelling is getting to try traditional cultural cuisine. Frida Kahlo LOVED to cook. She portrayed food consistently throughout her paintings. Her friends and family love to talk about how she adored holding raucous dinner parties inside the Casa Azul. We actually have a lot of knowledge about the kinds of foods Frida cooked. In the book ‘Frida’s Fiestas‘, her stepdaughter created a storylike cookbook. It was made from her memories as well as personal accounts from friends and mementos from Frida’s scrapbooks. This book will take you on a journey through Mexican cuisine and is bound to ignite your inner chef!
The Art Assignment by PBS Digital Studios has a beautiful video online all about Frida’s cooking. It even takes you through making some of her iconic recipes and explains why food was so important to Frida.
A place that was sacred to Frida was Xochimilco. Xochimilco and the surrounding Aztec waterways were where Frida and her friends would go to escape the city. A famous photo of Frida on a boat along the Xochimilco canals shows her dipping her hand into the water. She felt at home here, a place to run away from her dramatic marriage, her pain and even perhaps, herself.
Today it’s a vibrant neighbourhood where you can experience the same journey Frida would have taken. There are so many videos online which take you through these wonderfully colourful canals. With a Mezcal in hand at home, you’ll feel like you’re really there!
I hope all these resources gave you a great start to exploring the world of Frida Kahlo from the comfort of your own home. And even if we can’t get out there and travel right now, we can still ignite the spirit of adventure.
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