Frida Kahlo drives Italians mad and breaks day-visit record

Frida Kahlo

’s most complete exposition at the Museo delle culture di Milano (MUDEC) has registered a day-visit record in Milan , where it will remain open to the general public until June 3rd.

The exposition entitled “Frida Kahlo. Oltre il mito ” (Frida Kahlo. Beyond the Myth) comprises 70 paintings, 40 drawings, and 150 other objects which include photographs and letters . It has already made its way to the list of most-visited expositions of the year.

“Kahlo has fallen victim to a shameless exploitation of her personal image, which has outshined her extraordinary pictorial capacity,” explained Diego Sileo, curator of the collection .

The pieces were lent by the Dolores Olmedo Museum in Mexico City and the Jacques and Natasha Gelman Collection . The Phoenix Art Museum , the Madison Museum of Contemporary Art , and the Buffalo Albright-Knox Art Gallery also lent some of the paintings. “Although it may seem contradictory, it was the great number of shows and expositions dedicated to the artist which led us to create this project,” said Sileo.

He explained that, until this moment, most of the shows that deal with the Mexican paintress’ life and work have limited themselves to the morbid analysis of her dark family traumas, her tormented relationship with Diego Rivera , her frustrated desire to become a mother, and her constant struggle with disease.

Diego Sileo believes that Kahlo’s work has been interpreted as a mere reflection of her personal difficulties, thus relegating her work to a secondary level, replaced by the artist’s personal life, which has irrevocably been consumed by myth.

The exposition in Milan shows that there is more to Frida Kahlo than the myth suggests, and through several sources and unpublished documents which were revealed in 2007 , at the archives of Casa Azul (Kahlo’s residence in Mexico City) , the museum offers a new perspective on the work of the famous paintress.

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