Mirror Mirror…

Portraits of Frida Kahlo
May 21st – September 19th, 2015

THROCKMORTON FINE ART is pleased to announce “Mirror Mirror…Portrait of Frida Kahlo,” featuring over 50 rare and vintage photographs of the Mexican artist by legendary photographers of the 20th century: Lola Alvarez Bravo, Manuel Alvarez Bravo, Florence Arquin, Lucienne Bloch, Imogen Cunningham, Gisèle Freund, Hector Garcia, Bernice Kolko, Peter Juley, Dora Maar, Leo Matiz, Hermanos Mayo, Martin Munkacsi, Nickolas Muray, Carl van Vechten, Edward Weston, and others.

The show coincides with two events presented at the NEW YORK BOTANICAL GARDEN, also beginning in May: “FRIDA KAHLO: Art, Garden, Life,” an exhibition of Frida Kahlo paintings and works on paper curated by art historian Adriana Zavala that highlights Kahlo’s interest in botanica; and a re-creation of Kahlo’s garden in La Casa Azul, her home in Coyoacán, at the Enid A. Haupt Conservatory.

Dr. Salomon Grimberg, a leading expert on the life and work of Kahlo, will author the essay for the fully illustrated catalog of the Throckmorton Fine Art Gallery exhibition and present a gallery talk entitled “Frida saw herself first in a photograph, before discovering mirrors….” He elaborates: “As a girl, Frida Kahlo learned how she looked in portraits Guillermo Kahlo, her photographer father, made of her long before she learned about mirrors, which in time became the inseparable companions that provided her with a sense of Self.

In her day, Kahlo was photographed as much as, if not more than any Mexican movie star, and the portraits left behind are evidence of the limelight that surrounded her. Those same photographs that captured her magic and drew the public to her continue to seduce, and today, Kahlo’s allure and exotic beauty have become an intricate part of the universal conscious.

The exhibition at Throckmorton Fine Arts will also feature the rarely seen collection of drawings, letters, memorabilia, and photographs gifted by Kahlo to Arcady Boytler, the original owner of Kahlo’s self-portrait The Little Deer. Among them a vintage portrait of Kahlo with her fawn by Nickolas Muray, and photographs by Graciela Iturbide taken after the sealed room at La Casa Azul was opened to the public. On April 30, Graciela Iturbide will receive the Cornell Capa Lifetime Achievement Award, at the 31st Annual Infinity Awards ceremony of the International Center of Photography here in New York.