The recent collaboration between the prestigious Victoria & Albert Museum and the Casa Azul Museum in Mexico City has allowed audiences to discover a new dimension in the character of Frida Kahlo : The way she made herself a work of art through her unique style and flare.
The exposition “Frida Kahlo: Making Herself Up” at the Victoria & Albert museum explores the Mexican painter through the concept of self-invention , the construction of a unique narrative of the self which guides specialists through an analysis of her public persona.
In an exclusive interview with EL UNIVERSAL , Tristam Hunt , director of the V&A museum , spoke about the deep similarities between Kahlo and the millennial generation , the creation of a new intellectual current between Mexico and London, and an interest to collaborate with the Mexican administration after the 1 July election.
“It is a great privilege to have some of Frida’s personal objects here. Given our knowledge of jewelry, textiles, fashion, and photography, we have managed to understand the collection and put it in context,” the director commented.
He explained that the exposition was not about Frida’s work as a painter, “We wanted to analyze Frida herself as a work of art. We were interested in her identity construction and self-invention. Everyone knows Frida as an artist, but she was also a living portrait. We are hoping that this exhibition will recover some of her essence while showing a clinical analysis of what motivated her to construct her persona.”
Tristam Hunt is confident that the exposition will be very successful. He believes there are several things that make the millennial generation relate to Frida Kahlo: Gender identity and transgression , the capacity to reconstruct and reconfigure reality, a mixture between modernity and vintage features, and a certain level of self-absorption.
Frida Kahlo is very popular in the United Kingdom and people are interested in learning more about her. “We’re hoping to receive between 150,000 and 200,000 this summer.”
Hunt’s prediction has proven true. Since the exhibition opened, tickets have sold out for every single day until July 9 .
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