Stylecurated: FRIDA KAHLO: APPEARANCES CAN BE DECEIVING @Brooklyn Museum

Self portrait with monkeys painting by Frida Kahlo (1943) at the Brooklyn Museum for Frida Kahlo: Appearances Can Be Deceiving

"Malfatte" comes to mind when inching through the new Frida Kahlo exhibit at the Brooklyn museum. A loose iteration of 'misbehave,' Malfatte is a Venetian label under which prisoners (Santa Maria Maggiore Men's Prison) make and sell stylish wares. Attending a press preview for Frida Kahlo: Appearances Can Be Deceiving in early February, my mind drifts back to Venice as Frida Kahlo's life and posthumous fame embodies similar elements of rebellion, defiance, confinement, survival, creativity and patriotism. Keep reading to have a look...

Installation view from the entryway

Bright colors and beguiling photographs draw visitors into an immersive experience, and the life of a Mexican woman who remained largely unknown until after her passing. Curated by Catherine Morris and Lisa Small, Frida Kahlo's possessions--arranged along five themes--are surrounded by portraits and paintings. The self-paintings tell a tawdry tale, with creative license helping portray an abstracted realism. Despite familiar caricatures, the photographs impart a rare view into the freeze-frame reality of Frida's 1940s and an elegant woman exuding exotic beauty.

Frida Kahlo's First Communion (1917), photo possibly by Guillermo Kahlo

Displayed for the first time in the US, Kahlo's personal relics define a tenacious woman exercising equal parts creativity, rebellion and mischief. On the back of a 1917 photograph of her first communion, Frida had scribbled "Idiot!" In Tehuana ot Diego on My Mind, Frida paints herself in the 18th century style of "monjas coronadas"--similar to a nun posing as a bride of Christ. Her version includes an image of her husband--Diego Rivera--tattooed above her unibrow as a "third eye."

Traditional outfit (left) appears as the garb in her self-portrait (right)

Stricken by disability most of her life (polio as a child, traffic accident at 18, back problems and sickness as an adult), Frida's style served a dual purpose--commanding a colorful presence, while masking physical ailments. Ground-dusting skirts embellished with lace covered her right leg, which was eventually amputated. Loose blouses accommodated the corsets and braces that straightened her spine. Shawls layered over the translucent blouses hid the hardware that held her together. Frida treated her bindings as canvases themselves, painting her plaster body casts.

Tehuana ot Diego on my Mind (1943), self portrait painting by Frida Kahlo

"Appearances can be deceiving" it seems, and the Brooklyn Museum succeeds in revealing the persona of Frida Kahlo--through the lens of others and her own creativity. From views of the Casa Azul where she lived to snapshots that immortalize mundane moments to a varied sampling of artwork, there is clearly more to Frida Kahlo beyond her signature unibrow and newly commercialized persona. Frida was a Communist, an artist, a story-teller through her art and a woman whose story is worth telling through art and photography. Like the Malfette, Frida's life was confined by physical limitations and littered with "misbehaviors" (e.g. affairs, borderline sacrilegious art, etc.), but ultimately, she was a survivalist, who used talents to prevail. Frida Kahlo: Appearances Can be Deceiving is on view at the Brooklyn Museum until May 12, 2019.