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Inside the Museum: Museo Frida Kahlo
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A miniature step-pyramid adorns the courtyard at La Casa Azul.
On a tree-lined street in Mexico City sits a house that will make any passerby do a double take. The brilliant blue walls are impossible to miss. They surround the Frida Kahlo Museum, dedicated to the artist’s life and work. The blue walls gave the museum its nickname: La Casa Azul (lah KAH-suh ah-ZOOL), or the Blue House.
ettmann Archive/Getty Images
Diego Rivera and Frida Kahlo in 1939
The building was once the Kahlo family home; the artist was born there in 1907. She later shared the home with her husband, artist Diego Rivera, for the last 13 years of her life. It was a meeting place for artists and intellectuals in Mexico City.
Kahlo always wanted the house to become a museum when she died. In 1957, three years after her death, Rivera donated La Casa Azul and its contents to the nation of Mexico. The museum officially opened in 1958. Today it hosts approximately 25,000 visitors every month, making it one of the most visited museums in Mexico City.
Ross D. Franklin/AP Photo
Notice the abundance of natural light in Kahlo’s workspace.
Home Sweet Home
The museum’s 10 rooms are organized around a central courtyard. Curators have arranged the rooms much as they were during Kahlo’s life. Many of the artist’s personal belongings, including letters, photographs, and painting supplies, are on display. Notice the mirror on the table in the photograph above. Kahlo is known for her self-portraits and would have counted the mirror among her tools.
Andrew Hasson/Alamy Stock Photo
What can you learn about Kahlo from her choice of clothing?
The brightly colored traditional skirts, blouses, and jewelry Kahlo used to perfect her iconic look can also be found in the museum, above. Rivera’s hat and coat still hang from hooks on his bedroom wall. And the kitchen contains pots, utensils, and other items used during their life in La Casa Azul, below. How would you describe Kahlo’s design aesthetic?
R.M. Nunes/Alamy Stock Photo
Kahlo and Rivera collected ceramic vessels, displayed in their kitchen.
Living in a Museum
Several of Kahlo’s paintings are housed in the museum, including her last, Viva la Vida, below. She signed it just a few days before her death in 1954.
Kahlo and Rivera were also avid art collectors. The museum contains works by their contemporaries, as well as many examples of Mexican folk art and precolonial Indigenous works. There’s even an Aztec-inspired step-pyramid made of volcanic rock in the courtyard, shown at the top of the page.
Frida Kahlo (1907-1954), Viva La Vida, Watermelons, 1954. Oil on Masonite. Photo: Schalkwijk/Art Resource, NY. ©2024 Banco de México Diego Rivera Frida Kahlo Museums Trust, Mexico, D.F./Artists Rights Society (ARS), NY. Diego Rivera and
Kahlo’s last painting is called Viva la Vida, or “Live Life” in English.
Felix Lipov/ Alamy Stock Photo
Diego Rivera also spent his life collecting precolonial art, including sculptures, funeral masks, figurines, and vessels. In 1941, the artist began work on Anahuacalli (ah-nah-wah-KAH-lee), a museum to display the 45,000 works he came to own. The design is inspired by Indigenous Mesoamerican temple pyramids and built with volcanic rock. Rivera imagined the space, just a 15-minute drive from the Frida Kahlo Museum, as a city of the arts. It continues to evolve today, with a recent expansion, workshops, and contemporary exhibitions.
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