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Photographic exhibition "Frida Kahlo. Lo sguardo come identità" in Bologna, Italy
28 March 2026 | 27 September 2026The exhibition "Frida Kahlo. Lo sguardo come identità" (The Gaze as Identity) features 70 original photographs by leading photographers, including Edward Weston, Lucienne Bloch, Lola Álvarez Bravo, Julien Levy, Nickolas Muray, Gisèle Freund, Imogen Cunningham, Leo Matiz, Bernard Silberstein e Graciela Iturbide.
Throughout her life, Frida Kahlo was always very conscious of and attentive to her own image. Her extensive use of self-portraiture in her painting—which began after the accident that, when she was just eighteen, confined her to bed for over three months and left a lasting mark on her—reflects her ongoing exploration of self-representation.
She was also very familiar with photography. After her death, over 6,000 photographic prints were found among her belongings, including those taken by her father, the photographer Guillermo Kahlo, who was the first to photograph her and introduced her to the medium’s potential as a form of expression. As she grew up, Kahlo never turned down an opportunity to have her picture taken, whether it was with friends, relatives, or the artists she came into contact with.
The large number of photographic portraits dedicated to Frida Kahlo, however, presents a shifting and multifaceted image: there is the Frida captured through the eyes of her lover, the gallery owner, her closest friends, and the most renowned photographers—both male and female—but also the Frida observed by photojournalists and her fellow Hispanic Americans. The question that arises, therefore, is not which of these images is the most authentic, but rather how much Frida herself influenced these perspectives.
At Palazzo Pepoli - Via Castiglione 10, Bologna
Opening hours: 10:00 a.m. – 7:00 p.m (closed on Tuesday)
Visit the exhibition website at the link below.
