Frida Kahlo photo exhibit at Heard Museum in Phoenix opens Oct. 31

• The exhibition will feature 240 photos from more than 6,500 from the Blue House archive.
• The images range from her youth to adulthood, portraying Kahlo in happy times and hard times.
• The Heard Museum is the first Southwest venue to host "Her Photos."
• Images include political themes, health problems and good times with family and friends.

Fans of Frida Kahlo and her artwork already are familiar with the roller coaster of her life, filled health problems, a tumultuous relationship with painter Diego Rivera and her strong social and political views.

With "Frida Kahlo: Her Photos," which opens Oct. 31 at the Heard Museum in Phoenix, visitors will get an even deeper and more intimate look at the celebrated painter's life. The photographs range from her youth to adulthood, portraying Kahlo in happy and hard times, and reveal her deep love of photography. The exhibition is divided into five sections: 1. The Origins, 2. The Blue House, 3. Politics, Revolutions and Diego, 4. Her Broken Body, and 5. Frida's Loves and Photography.

The exhibition will feature 240 photos from more than 6,500 from the archive of the Blue House     — la Casa Azul — the  Mexico City home where Kahlo grew up and where she and Rivera lived from 1929 until her death in 1954.  Rivera donated the home and its contents in 1958, and it was turned into a museum in Kahlo's honor. "Her Photos" was organized by the Frida Kahlo Museum in Mexico City, where Carlos Phillips is the general director.

"People will be able to view inside Frida's intimate universe, as well as her interest for photography," Phillips said. "We believe that people will recognize the influence photography had in her paintings, particularly in her self-portraits. It seems Frida is always looking straight at a camera when she paints herself. She was always very aware and self-conscious of her image."

The Heard Museum is the first Southwest venue to host "Her Photos,"  which is part of the museum's mission to broaden the scope of cultures that are showcased. The images in "Her Photos" represent Kahlo and Rivera's lives in la Casa Azul, including friends and family, Kahlo's interests in the indigenous people of Mexico and pre-Columbian Mexico, and her dealing with health problems caused by a bus accident when she was 18.

"Visitors should feel like they are sitting down with a photo album, flipping through the family photos," Heard Museum curator Janet Cantley said. "You can see the plants, pets and visitors they had at the Blue House, and the couple kept a very active social life. The Blue House was like a sanctuary for her."

Kahlo's father, Guillermo, was a well-known photographer.  The Mexican government commissioned him to document buildings in celebration of Mexico's independence from Spain, and Kahlo often tagged along on these outings. He also loved self-portraits, and 36 of them are in the exhibition.

"I think she probably would have been a photographer if it wasn't for her accident," said Allen Reamer, an art-faculty associate at Arizona State University who's teaching classes about Kahlo.  "Her father always said she was a strong person right from the beginning, and she would never want to sit around and not do anything."

Her grandfather, Antonio Calderón, also was a photographer, as were many of her close friends, including Edward Weston, Tina Modotti, Nickolas Muray, and Lola and Manuel Álvarez Bravo.  Seven photos in the exhibition are attributed to Calderón, including a photo of a rag doll and overturned horse cart, in response to a collision involving a trolley car and the bus she was riding in when she was 18. The crash left her immobile for three months, unable to bear children and plagued with health problems.

The revealing section "Her Broken Body" shows Kahlo dealing with her health issues. Her father loaned her his box of paints and brushes, and she started painting as a way to show the pain she was going through. One photo in the exhibition shows Kahlo painting in bed with a special easel her mother built. A heartbreaking photo by Muray shows Kahlo slouched over on a hospital bed, her face covered by her unbrushed hair.

"She had 30 surgeries throughout her life," Cantley said. "Oftentimes, she was not able to get out of bed, and had problems with her back and needed to rest after surgery, so people came to her and photographer friends took photos of her."

Other photos show happy times at la Casa Azul: Kahlo and Rivera entertaining with friends smiling around the outdoor dinner table, or Kahlo dressed in a beautiful dark gown, fiddling with one of the large, ornate rings on her fingers, one of her dogs perched by her side. Kahlo added her own touches to many of the photos by cutting pieces out from them, writing dedications on them, or leaving lipstick kisses on them, such as on a photo of a Rivera painting.

The "Politics, Revolutions and Diego" section features photos from the Mexican Revolution and shows Kahlo and Rivera's commitment to the Communist Party. She and Rivera befriended Soviet leader Leon Trotsky, and Trotsky and his wife lived at the Blue House, where he and Kahlo had an affair. Trotsky was assassinated in Mexico in 1940 on the orders of Joseph Stalin, and Kahlo and Rivera switched their allegiance to Stalin. She even painted a self-portrait with the dictator in the background.

"Frida really liked to be associated with politics and the revolution," Cantley said, "and even said her birthday was in 1910, the year the Mexican Revolution started, instead of the real year, which was 1907."

Accompanying the exhibition is "Las Favoritas de Frida," organized by the Phoenix Fridas, a group of female artists. The members selected items from the Heard Museum's archive that they believe Kahlo would have enjoyed or owned.

"We looked at every item from the era when she lived and picked out pieces that reminded us of Frida," said Kathy Cano-Murillo, founder of the Fridas.  "Maybe it's a dinner set Frida had in her house, a piece of art she had on her wall. ... I love the ceramic pieces and the giant rug with two love birds on it. There's huge necklaces of jade beads, and Frida was known for her love of jewelry. There was so many layers to her creativity and vision."

The Phoenix Fridas began in 2004 as a craft group. Cano-Murillo noticed many groups across the country had fun names, such as Austin Craft Mafia, so she asked a group of Kahlo-loving artist friends to join. The group puts on an annual Kahlo show, a holiday trunk show and craft events throughout the year.

"Frida is such a powerful icon in the art world, and we are proud she is from Mexico because most of us are Mexican-American or married into Mexican-American families," Cano-Murillo said. "We love all of her bright colors, the drama, her story and the way she delivered her messages. We relate to her in our own lives, and I hope people draw inspiration from her as well, and stand for something."

'Frida Kahlo: Her Photos'

When: Saturday, Oct. 31, through Monday, Feb. 8.

Where: Heard Museum, 2301 N. Central Ave., Phoenix.

Admission: $13.50-$18; $7.50 for college students with ID and ages 6-17; free for age 5 or younger, American Indians and museum members. 

Details: 602-252-8840, heard.org. 

3 reasons to see 'Frida Kahlo: Her Photos'

1. This is a rare and intimate view of the artist through the camera lens. Visitors will see her in happy times at the Blue House as well as her lifelong struggle with health problems.

2. The Heard Museum is the first Southwestern venue to host the the exhibition from the Frida Kahlo Museum in Mexico.

3. An accompanying exhibition, "Las Favoritas de Frida," is curated by the Phoenix Fridas and gives a distinctive perspective on Kahlo's style. 

Reach the reporter at kellie.hwang@arizonarepublic.com or 602-444-8690. Follow on Twitter @KellieHwang