I stepped out of the Frida Kahlo exhibition at Tate, emboldened and enlivened. It’s hard to spend time in the company of her art and life stories and not come away feeling like you’ve swallowed the sun. My guest Storm, an artist and a photographer, also said she was fired up. I can’t wait to see what she produced after our visit**.
Frida Kahlo: The Making of an Icon
One of my missions as a writer is to help people feel seen. It strikes me that Frida achieved that mission as an artist not because she catered to individual needs or tastes but because she was unabashedly, unapologetically herself. By not only pushing limits but centring herself in her own work, she gave so many people (particularly the marginalised) permission to centre themselves too. She was a muse for everyone from the Mexican Renaissance of the ’30s to the Chicana/o arts movement of the ’60s to stars like Patti Smith and Madonna.
Apparently, she’s been called ‘narcissistic’ but I find that a strange and limiting take. Frida’s work is as broad as it is specific, as self-erasing as it is self-interested. Above all, it’s generous and inclusive. There is a sense of expansion in Frida’s gaze and in the way she approached her life and art. She fully claimed herself as a ‘mestiza’ (person of mixed European and indigenous heritage), as portrayed in her painting, The Two Fridas.
She wore various identities although she rejected labels, including that of Surrealism, despite her work’s affinity with the movement. Frida would not and could not be contained or reduced. She put womanhood at the core of her expression but she was damned if she’d make it palatable. As Surrealist painter André Breton once said: “The art of Frida Kahlo is a ribbon around a bomb”.
Unapologetic, Uncompromising, Uncontainable
Famously, Frida toyed with or directly confronted set ideas around beauty, sexuality, gender, disability, femininity, heritage and whose history mattered, whose stories got told. Her most celebrated self-portraits are so widely known it’s hard to imagine just how groundbreaking they must have been at the time. The Mexican headdress, the monobrow and fine moustache, the unflinching stare. She owned it all and dared you to look away, while inviting you to see beyond.
Of course artists are not always appreciated in their own eras and though her name started circulating in the early 1930s, it took decades for Frida Kahlo to become a crossover hit. Today, Fridamania has captured the world, with every new generation discovering her all over again. The blockbuster Tate exhibition sold an unprecedented 35k tickets before its doors opened.
The Evolution of Frida Kahlo
The exhibition traces Frida’s evolution from a relative unknown to a global icon. You can see early family portraits, rare sketches and paintings, personal items. You’ll get to know the artists who befriended and influenced her — none more so than her life partner, the painter and muralist Diego Rivera. Their relationship was tempestuous. Yet at times they were so intertwined that some of their art has Frida and Diego’s faces combined or their bodies and genders swapped.
The exhibition is beautifully and seamlessly curated. I was drawn to her sketch of the traffic accident that changed her life. This debilitating event echoes throughout: from images of Frida painting in bed to later portraits after her leg was amputated and she used a wheelchair.
Frida was just 18 when a bus and tram collision left her shattered. She broke her leg, spinal column, collar bone, ribs, pelvis, and an iron hand rail punctured her abdomen and uterus. She would never be able to have children and suffered multiple miscarriages. Bedridden in a corset cast for months, she turned to painting, using herself as her first subject. Trauma became part of her story, something that stalked her most symbolist paintings. However, she never let it take over.
A Multi-Faceted Visionary
Death haunted her; yet every piece of Frida’s art is charged with an almost electric life force. It spills over not just from her work but from the artists she inspired. One of my favourite parts of this show are the rooms dedicated to photography, film scenes and stills, sculptures, paintings, murals, graffiti, and shrines paying homage to Frida. Such playful and evocative works by artists who are female, Mexican, Black, queer, disabled… all liberated by the multi-faceted vision and singular drive of this unique human being. It’s incredibly moving to see how one woman can reach so many.
“I used to think I was the strangest person in the world but then I thought there are so many people in the world, there must be someone just like me who feels bizarre and flawed in the same ways I do. I would imagine her, and imagine that she must be out there thinking of me too. Well, I hope that if you are out there and read this and know that, yes, it’s true I’m here, and I’m just as strange as you.” – Frida Kahlo
Every year, I choose a word or several as anchors and in 2026, one of my words is audacious. Frida Kahlo encapsulates audacity. Her lush, hyper-sensual imagery; her use of painting as performance art; her intensity of vision; her determination to burn brighter as darkness loomed. Frida got to know darkness intimately. Her work helps us face our own shadows while always turning towards light, colour and joy.
Frida will be the talk of the town this summer. Go see her before the herds come stomping. And don’t forget to take some money for the gift shop. It’s almost impossible to leave without picking up some Frida merch (especially after you’ve wandered through the merchandise section of the exhibition). I bought a couple of postcards and a Frida coaster. She’s looking at me now, reminding me to create more boldly, to live life to the brim, to savour every last drop.
Fridamania takes London
Don’t stop at the Tate exhibition, enjoy more of Frida’s art and inspiration as Fridamania takes over the capital. Six emerging artists under 25 have created large-scale public murals around Bankside. Mexican artist Alejandra Ballesteros designed garlands of traditional papel picado (decorative paper cuttings) to swirl around Carnaby Street for Pride month. Look out for more sightings of Frida around London over the coming months, from Piccadilly Circus screens to Blackfriars station walls. Arriba!
Frida: The Making of an Icon is at Tate Modern, Bankside, SE1 9TG (Southwark tube, Blackfriars tube/rail). Open to all ages (PG for some content). 10am-6pm daily (9pm Fri-Sat), open until 8pm Suns Jun 28-Aug 30 & Mon Aug 31, Relaxed Hours 10am-11am (every 3rd Tue); adult £25/child age 12-18 £5/FREE for members and under 12s (Jun 25-Jan 3)
**press viewing
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