Frida Kahlo, Diego Rivera and Mexican Modernism

Drawn from the collection Jacques and Natasha Gelman, philanthropists who acquired works from the artists themselves, the exhibition Frida Kahlo, Diego Rivera, and Mexican Modernism marks the first ever Tulsa presentation of paintings by Kahlo, Rivera, and many of their contemporaries. Of these works, seven are Kahlo’s self-portraits, including her iconic 1943 painting Diego on my Mind.
The exhibition takes a closer look at the role that art, artists, and their supporters played in the emergence of national identity and creative spirit in the period following the Mexican Revolution.

Spanning several galleries throughout the Museum, the exhibition also extends into the 25-acre Philbrook Gardens, giving visitors a taste of what it was like to be in the garden at Frida Kahlo’s Mexico City home, La Casa Azul (The Blue House).
Both Frida and Diego connected to the land through their love of gardens, an inspiration seen in many of their works that prominently feature calla lilies, cacti, sunflowers, and other plants native to the region. Indeed, in post-revolution Mexico, many public gardens were re-introducing native plants that had been displaced during 400 years of Spanish occupation. This movement was an effort to re-Indigenize common spaces, evoke the Mexican countryside for city dwellers, and inspire a greater sense of national pride in Mexico’s cultural and botanical roots.

Frida Kahlo, Diego Rivera, and Mexican Modernism offers a deep exploration of the real people behind this work—and how their personas and their artistic practice continue to resonate with audiences today.
The exhibition is organized by the Vergel Foundation and MondoMostre in collaboration with the Instituto Nacional de Bellas Artes y Literatura (INBAL).