What It's Like To Visit Frida Kahlo And Diego Rivera's Mind-Blowing NSW Exhibit

One of our student contributors visited Art Gallery NSW’s rare, raved-about exhibit on legendary figures Frida Kahlo and Diego Rivera. Check out her review.

Frida Kahlo claims to have suffered two great accidents in her life.

The first was when she was 18; a street trolley crashed into her bus and a handrail impaled her, piercing her body like a sword. Her spinal cord was broken. Her collarbone and pelvis were broken. Her leg was shattered; her foot crushed. The handrail exited through her crotch, tearing her vagina.

She would never fully recover.

The second accident of Frida Kahlo's life was falling in love with Diego Rivera, a renowned Mexican muralist.

Frida spent her life exploring both accidents through art, and her struggles with health and love are currently on show, alongside some of Diego’s own works, at the Art Gallery of New South Wales.

I visited the exhibition on the weekend, and expected to love it.

I had seen one of Frida’s works hanging in the Metropolitan Museum of Art, and I remember it more than I remember any other artwork in arguably one of New York’s (and the world’s) best galleries.

So I knew I would connect with the Sydney exhibition.

Possibly my favourite piece of the exhibition was ‘Diego on My Mind’.

It captures Frida in all of her mystery and glory: monobrowed; moustache hairs painted delicately but visibly; head adorned in flowers; face framed by a cloud of white clothing; unsmiling; intriguing. And of course, Diego, literally on her mind, his face painted in the middle of her forehead.

The work is just so Frida.

Frida represents herself rawly and interestingly. In the selfie-age where the ultimate goal is to filter to the point of perfection, her works depict what others might call ‘flaws’ in honesty and defiance.

Diego’s works were less interesting. There was masculinity to his pieces that I didn’t quite grasp, and to which I didn’t feel emotionally connected.

But then there was the two of them together.

More than fifty photographs of the pair were on display, telling a story of unpredictability and passion.

The most arresting was a shot of Frida at her funeral, laying in an open casket, surrounded by people, Diego standing close to the coffin, looking down upon her with grief.

She was just 47 when she died, of a suspected suicide by overdose. The scene was one of heartbreak.

The exhibition continued with letters between Frida and her family (including Diego), tablets below providing English translations.

There was a small throng of people lined up at the display, waiting to sit and read Frida’s words; to understand her relationships better; to get inside her head a little more.

The exhibition revealed who Frida and Diego were: individually, together and with others.

There were revelations of many affairs: Diego with Frida’s younger sister; Frida with Nickolas Muray (a photographer whose works were on show too, capturing Frida and Diego in some of their most tender moments); Frida with other women; Diego with other women; Frida with other men.

It was a strange relationship: tumultuous and stormy; complicated and passionate.

The curation was brilliant. The paintings, photographs and letters were arranged with such care; it felt like I was actually stepping through a visual autobiography of Frida and Diego.

The exhibition ended with a series of three videos displayed against a glass wall, the gallery’s internal arches providing a backdrop to the rare footage.

The third video was the most powerful.

Frida and Diego were outside; it was a simple scene. But, fleetingly, they would touch: she would kiss him, his hand would cup against her face; a collection of small, tender moments.

It was a captivating, final reminder that despite one divorce, two marriages and multiple counts of unfaithfulness, they truly loved each other.

Frida Kahlo suffered two great accidents in her life. Painting her truth was not one of them.

Brittney Rigby is one of Student Edge’s student contributors. Learn more about the contributors program.

Photos: Brittney Rigby.