Cathy's Art Diary

Excellent one day workshop organised by the London Art History Society at Conway Hall looking at the life and work of Frida Kahlo. Led by Jacqueline Cockburn the day split neatly in four lectures. In the morning we looked at Kahlo’s life and how it was reflected in her art. The lecturer talked about Kahlo’s polio and the results of her terrible injuries from a bus crash which left in her pain throughout her life. She also talked about Kahlo’s two marriages to Diego Rivera. In the second lecture of the morning we looked at three contemporary surrealist female artists who all came from Europe to live in Mexico, Remedois Varo, Leonora Carrington and Kati Horna. I’d only heard of Leonora Carrington so found this fascinating comparison to Kahlo and a nice idea to broaden the day out. In the afternoon we took a detailed look at Kahlo’s diaries from 1944 until her death in 1954. These seem to be a mix of diary and sketch book and a place she worked out ideas about her life an...

Fascinating exhibition at the Victoria and Albert Museum looking at the life of Frida Kahlo though her possessions.   This was a stylishly presented show with clever presentation cases such as those designed like four poster beds to represent the time she spent sick in bed. However it was very busy and cramped in places. I must admit I’ve not caught the Frida Kahlo addiction but a lot of the audience had, including a grandma and granddaughter with matching flowers in their hair.   I found the most fascinating thing in the show was the story of how 6,000 photographs, 22,000 documents and 300 personal items were found in a sealed up bathroom in 2004, 50 years after her death, and these form the basis for this show.   The first room, a long corridor, told the story of her life though those photographs and documents. I was stunned that not only had she had polio but to see details of the awful crash she was involved in. The list of injuries was horrific! ...