FRIDA Kahlo’s image is now part of popular culture.
Her familiar face, with its joined eyebrows and crown of colourful flowers, can sometimes overshadow her paintings.
But behind this famous image was an artist who used her self-portraits to explore her body, cultural roots, relationships and identity.
The Frida Kahlo Experience, organised by Woman Experiences at Art Live Madrid, aims to go beyond the artist’s familiar image. It hopes to introduce visitors to more personal sides of her life and inner world.
Unlike a traditional art exhibition, it does not rely on original paintings. Instead, it tells Kahlo’s story through photographs, personal letters and interactive features.
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Organisers say some of the photographs have rarely been seen, while others are being shown to the public for the first time.
The letters offer visitors a closer look at Kahlo’s feelings and personal experiences.
The exhibition is called A besos entiendo, a veces no — “I understand through kisses, sometimes not”. The title points to the complexity of human relationships, which in Kahlo’s life and art involved love, pain, dependence and independence.
Kahlo’s importance goes beyond showing pain. She used her own experiences to create a visual language in which identity was something to question and redefine.
In her paintings, especially her self-portraits, she did more than show what she looked like. She used her body, personal experiences, Mexican roots and identity as a woman to explore who she was.
For many women, Kahlo is more than a famous painter. She is a symbol of the search for self-understanding and freedom from the roles and expectations imposed by society.
The exhibition’s announced partnership with UN Women also links her story to gender equality and the fight against violence against women.
Kahlo turned difficult physical and personal experiences into part of her art. Her life offers a way to explore women’s independence, vulnerability and strength.
At the end of the exhibition, the interactive “Living Art” space uses art and sensory elements to offer visitors an experience beyond looking at photographs and documents.
Woman Experiences presents the lives and work of artists through stories, exhibitions and films.
The programme began in March 2026 and will run until the end of the year.
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