Walking through Frida: Beyond the Myth at the Virginia Museum of Fine Arts doesn’t feel like attending a documentary screening — it feels like slipping into Frida’s world. It disorients you into her mind. You step through doorways that feel like mirrors, gaze through archways into rooms you haven’t reached yet, and find yourself caught in a web of memory, myth, and intimacy. The effect is intensely trippy. Somewhere between the photographs, drawings, objects, and silences, Frida the icon turns into a person pacing quietly beside you — not frozen in time, but moving through it with you.
Organized by the Dallas Museum of Art, Frida: Beyond the Myth brings over 60 works to Richmond, making the VMFA the only East Coast venue and one of only two museums in the U.S. to host the exhibition. The show runs through September 28, 2025, and includes rarely seen paintings, still lifes, and drawings from 1926 to 1954 — along with glimpses into Kahlo’s life through objects and images captured by fellow artists, lovers, family, and friends.
What makes this show so resonant isn’t just its breadth but its refusal to flatten Frida into a symbol. We’ve become used to seeing her as a hero: the woman who endured chronic illness with grace, the revolutionary who wore her politics on her sleeve, the artist who turned her losses into beauty. But this exhibition doesn’t tear down that mythology — it simply lets her step beyond it. The title matters: this isn’t about dismissing the myth but moving through it. Frida herself always presented like she was on set — dressing up, playing with color, controlling how she was seen, how she stared back.
In her self-portraits — and even in many of the photographs taken by others — Frida stares us down: serious, composed, fully in control of the narrative. But in video clips, playful sketches, and still lifes, another Frida emerges — flirtatious, humorous, endearing. Her smile, often absent from her painted self, becomes a recurring presence. You sense her winking at the camera, teasing those around her. It’s a reminder that she wasn’t only defined by suffering — she was also deeply alive, expressive, and funny. Even Diego Rivera, often immortalized as towering and gruff, appears softer here — more human, less mythic. These shifts remind us that myth is not always imposed; sometimes, it’s self-authored. Beyond the Myth doesn’t reject Frida’s symbolic presence — it lets her own it, but also live outside of it. It lets her be complicated.
The space itself is vital to this experience. Inspired by the layout of Casa Azul, Kahlo’s famed home in Mexico City, the architecture of the exhibition avoids imitation and opts for evocation. Instead of a replica, we’re offered the essence: doorways and windows that do more than frame the work — they frame your perception. You begin to question your own position: are you looking through, or are you being looked at? Are you entering Frida’s world, or is she entering yours?
One of the most haunting moments of the exhibition is the subtle incorporation of The Two Fridas — a painting not physically present yet central to the experience. A monumental black-and-white image of the iconic double self-portrait is mounted on a distant wall, visible first through a window-like cutout before you physically arrive in front of it. This sequence — seeing, anticipating, arriving — mirrors the very duality the painting expresses. The original work presents two versions of Frida: one dressed in Victorian attire, her heart exposed and bleeding; the other in traditional Tehuana dress, heart intact. They are tethered by the hands and by a shared artery — one self-sustaining the other. Though the painting itself isn’t on site, its ghost haunts the exhibition, reinforcing the notion that Frida’s myth and reality, performance and vulnerability, were always intertwined. The shifting avatars of Frida Kahlo — the one that bled and the one that breathed — are not two figures, but one person navigating the space between.
The rooms unfold non-linearly, like memory. You glimpse a future space from your current one, displacing time. The more disoriented you become, the more focused your attention gets. Like navigating a dream — or a myth unraveling itself. And in this dream, softness emerges. We are used to seeing Frida armored in resilience — all pain, passion, and protest. But here, there is a quiet femininity, a sensibility that doesn’t weaken her legacy but expands it. Her tenderness becomes its own strength. A still life becomes just as political as a portrait. A smile becomes as assertive as a stare.
Ultimately, Frida: Beyond the Myth succeeds not because it dismisses the icon but because it gives us the individual. In doing so, it reminds us that mythologizing someone often means turning them into a mirror — a reflection of what we need, not who they are. But here, through carefully chosen works and a thoughtfully constructed space, Frida steps through that mirror. Her presence feels liminal, pulsing in the space between rooms. For a moment, she meets us not as a symbol — but as herself.
Looking ahead, the Virginia Museum of Fine Arts will host several events in the coming months to celebrate the legacy of Frida Kahlo, including:
- April 5: ¡FridaFest! A full day of live music, local Mexican cuisine, and art from 1:00 PM to 7:00 PM.
- April 25: A lecture by Hayden Herrera, author of Frida Kahlo: The Biography, from 6:30 PM to 7:30 PM. Admission is $8.
- April 26: A screening of Frida, featuring Salma Hayek, from 1:00 PM to 4:00 PM.
The Frida: Beyond the Myth exhibition is on display from April 5 to September 28, with adult tickets available for $20 HERE
All photos by Metta Bastet
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