We take a look at what is being said about this new exhibition on the Mexican artist.
The Guardian: “At times this is an impressive performance, a filibuster in which the curators throw in every possible bit of context and affinity to stretch out what would otherwise be quite a small exhibition. One beneficiary is Rivera. He gets impressive works in, including a stunning nude drawing of his wife as well as a tender portrait of her. And you can gruntingly acknowledge that contemporaries Olga Costa and Maria Izquierdo painted flamboyant self-portraits, but they are not in Kahlo’s league.”
The Standard: “Kahlo only made around 200 paintings in her lifetime; but with a slender 36 on show at Tate Modern, visitors might feel short-changed by what ends up feeling more tribute than deep dive. If “Fridamania” eclipsed the artist in our collective unconscious, she is also at risk of being eclipsed in this exhibition. And that is hardly fitting of an icon.”
London Mums Magazine: “As a mum, I found myself thinking about what I want my son to take from this. Not just the bright colours and the dramatic story, though those are wonderful. I would like him to understand that you can build yourself, that you can take your pain and make something astonishing from it, that you can hold multiple identities and love fiercely and dress outrageously and never let the world shrink you. Frida Kahlo did all of that, and now, right here in London, we get to spend six whole months in her company. Go and see her. She has been waiting for you.”
The Telegraph: “This anticlimactic exhibition charts the quasi-canonisation of the Mexican artist – with only 23 of her 140-plus paintings.”
The Observer: “Instead, the show dilates upon Kahlo as secular saint: a Day of the Dead altar for Frida, worshipful tributes by fellow Latin American artists. There is a gallery of impersonations, from the Japanese actor-photographer Yasumasa Morimura to Tracey Emin in bed, head heaped high with crimson roses in Mary McCartney’s photograph. Kahlo’s central motif was, of course, her own face, beautiful, stern, unsmiling, dark-eyed, and she fixed it so clearly in her paintings she is more easily imitated than the Virgin Mary. But 50 depictions by other people only serve to emphasise her ringing absence.”
Time Out: “the exhibition broadens out into an account of Kahlo’s afterlife. Her work is placed in dialogue with modern and contemporary artists influenced by her imagery, politics and self-fashioning; her embrace by the Chicana/o movement is explored; and her impact on generations of women artists is traced through themes of identity, gender and self-representation. Much of it is interesting. Whether it is more interesting than another room of Kahlo’s own paintings, I’m not so sure.”
South London.co.uk: “You are left in no doubt at the end of this exhibition why Kahlo was such an icon to future generations of artists, particularly the Chicano movement of the seventies. Reinvention of her seminal works such as Las Dos Fridas as a tool to fight social injustice reveals how rich her work is. However, the most powerful element is undoubtedly the work by Kahlo herself and the influence she had on her contemporaries. The swathes of Kahlo merchandise are less of a draw, given you can buy hundreds and thousands of objects associated with her, everything from sanitary towels to egg cups, on Etsy.”
The exhibition is on display at the Tate Modern until the 3rd January 2027.