FRIDA KAHLO'S PHOTO COLLECTION

Frida Kahlo's Photographic Collection offers a glimpse into the hidden moments of the Mexican artist's life, offering a new perspective on the tumultuous fate of one of the most enigmatic and emblematic figures in Latin American art. Since its premiere in Mexico City in 2009, the exhibition has travelled the world, with nearly a million visitors in twenty cities. In Budapest, it will be on show for the first time at the Mai Mano House from 18 October 2024 to 12 January 2025.

As important as photography was to her, part of Frida's collection was hidden from the public for decades. When she died in 1954, her husband Diego Rivera donated their home in Mexico City, known as the Blue House, to the Mexican people for a museum dedicated to Frida's life and work. The Frida Kahlo Museum has become one of the most visited exhibition spaces in the world.

Diego asked the museum to keep some of the works and objects Frida had given them out of public view. This is the main reason why the personal archive of more than six thousand photographs, some drawings, letters, medicines and clothes has remained hidden from the public for five long decades. An almost mythical aura surrounded the bathroom in the Blue House, which had been designated as the repository of these treasures.

The archives were only opened in 2003. The curator, photographer Pablo Ortiz Monasterio, who is also an expert on the history of Mexican photography, has selected a selection of newly found photographs for this exhibition. The Frida Kahlo Photographic Collection features 241 previously unpublished photographs that Frida cherished, depicting different periods of her life and featuring people important to her.