Casa Azul

As one explores Frida Kahlo’s work more deeply and enjoys the privilege of getting to know her home, one begins to discover the intense interrelations between Frida, her work, and her house. Her creative universe is to be found in the Blue House, the place where she was born and where she died. Following her marriage to Diego Rivera, Frida lived in different places in Mexico City and abroad, but she always returned to her family home in Coyoacán.

Located in one of the oldest and most beautiful neighbourhoods in Mexico City, the Blue House was made into a museum in 1958, four years after the death of the painter. Today it is one of the most popular museums in the Mexican capital. Popularly known as the Casa Azul (the ‘Blue House’), the Museo Frida Kahlo preserves the personal objects that reveal the private universe of Latin America’s most celebrated woman artist.

The Blue House also contains some of the painter’s most important works: Long Live Life (1954), Frida and the Caesarian Operation (1931), and Portrait of My Father Wilhelm Kahlo (1952), among others. In the room she used during the day is the bed with the mirror on the ceiling, set up by her mother after the bus accident in which Frida was involved on her way home from the National Preparatory School. During her long convalescence, while she was bedridden for nine months, Frida began to paint portraits.

At the foot of the bed – a reminder of those days – are the portraits of Lenin, Stalin, and Mao Tsetung. In the studio is the easel given to Frida by Nelson Rockerfeller, along with her brushes and books, and in her night-time bedroom is a collection of butterflies – a gift of the Japanese sculptor Isamu Noguchi – as well as a portrait of her by her friend...

You can read this article in full in Selvedge issue 83.