FRIDA KAHLO AT THE BROOKLYN MUSEUM

The unique and characteristic style of Frida Kahlo (1907-1954) was a constituent element of her figure and identity as an artist. The deepest features of her style, which alluded to her ethnicity, disability and olitical ideologies, were not only thematic axes for her wardrobe -which we might consider part of her work-, but also the pillars of her paintings and artworks. It is from there that the Brooklyn Museum brings to its halls the largest exhibition of Frida Kahlo in a decade and the first costumes show of the Mexican painter in that country.

Some of the clothes and other personal items that are part of the exhibition are part of a collection rediscovered in 2004, after being locked for 50 years, after the death of Frida. Kahlo's belongings, from tehran clothing, contemporary and pre-colonial jewelry and some of the many hand-painted corsets and prosthetics that the artist used during her life, had been stored in the iconic Casa Azul (Blue House), the former residence of Kahlo and Rivera in Mexico City, which had stipulated that their possessions would not be revealed until 15 years after Rivera's death. In this way, Frida Kahlo: Appearances Can Be Deceiving is a kind of revelation about how Kahlo designed her appearance and shaped her personal and public identity to reflect her cultural heritage and political beliefs, while addressing and incorporating her physical disabilities.

In addition to the costumes Frida Kahlo: Appearances Can Be Deceiving exhibits a series of important paintings, drawings and photographs of the famous Jacques and Natasha Gelman Collection of 20th Century Mexican Art, as well as historical films. Likewise, the exhibition intends, through some works of Mesoamerican art, to illustrate the interests that the artist and her husband, Diego Rivera (1886-1957), had in relation to collecting.