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National Portrait Gallery, Smithsonian Institution
Restrictions & Rights
CC0
Object number
NPG.2015.136
Exhibition Label
Born Mexico City
Frida Kahlo drew upon the folk culture of Mexico to develop a visionary style of self-portraiture. Merging fantasy with realism, she gave visual form to the suffering she had endured following a traumatic injury and a lifetime of ill health while also probing the politics of gender, class, and race from her perspective as a committed communist. Kahlo made several transformative visits to the United States during the 1930s. Her first solo exhibition, held in New York City in 1938, was followed by others in the 1940s. It was not until the late 1970s, however, that she gained widespread critical recognition. By championing personal experience and cultural identity as valid subjects for art, Kahlo has become a cultural icon for feminists, the Latinx community, and others.
Painter Magda Pach and her husband, the writer and artist Walter Pach, were among the establishment figures who fervently supported Mexican art in the United States during the 1920s and 1930s.
Nacida en Ciudad de México
Inspirada en la cultura tradicional de México, Frida Kahlo desarrolló un estilo visionario de autorretrato. Combinando fantasía y realismo, dio forma visual al sufrimiento que le causó una lesión traumática y una vida entera de salud precaria, a la vez que exploraba políticas de género, clase y raza desde su perspectiva de comunista ferviente. En la década de 1930 hizo varias visitas cruciales a EE.UU. Su primera exposición individual, realizada en Nueva York en 1938, fue seguida de otras en la década de 1940. Pero no fue hasta fines de los setenta que recibió el reconocimiento general de la crítica. Por su defensa de la experiencia personal y la identidad cultural como temas válidos en el arte, Kahlo es un ícono cultural para las feministas, la comunidad latina y otros grupos.
La pintora Magda Pach y su esposo, el escritor y artista Walter Pach, fueron parte del establishment estadounidense que apoyó con fervor el arte mexicano durante las décadas de 1920 y 1930.
Provenance
Magda Pach, New York; Walter Pach, New York (by descent), 1950; Nikifora Iliopoulos, Athens; Francis M. Naumann Fine Art, New York.