For three generations, art lovers have been drawn to a residential corner in the Coyoacán section of Mexico City to visit Casa Azul, the home where Frida Kahlo was born, lived, loved and painted for more than 40 years. Witness to a vibrant past, its cobalt walls enclose a courtyard and garden cooled by fountains and shaded paths. Her rooms contain a museum dedicated to the beloved artist, with family photos and memorabilia, as well as the bed where she spent so much time painting while recovering from a horrific tram accident in which she was impaled on a metal pole. White with yellow and blue tiles, the kitchen includes her names and the love of her life and the bane of her existence, Diego Riverawritten on the walls. Her studio is decorated with artwork and accessories, as well as an easel and wheelchair.
But while Casa Azul remains a bucket list destination for any Kahlo enthusiasta second museum dedicated to the artist, just a few blocks away, opened last September. Casa Roja lifts the curtain on Kahlo’s family life and, perhaps, introduces a new work in her oeuvre – a kitchen mural, Inn of the Sparrows (“Table of Scroungers”). It features the branches of a grapefruit tree like the one growing in the backyard, bougainvillea, and an engraved banner with the title held aloft by a sparrow. While the mural is unsigned, the family is believed to be Kahlo’s work, despite French newspaper Le Monde citing both German art historians. Helga Prignitz-Poda and biography Luis-Martín Lozanospecialists in Kahlo’s work, insisting that she did not paint it. They also claim that the basement could hardly have been the artist’s private redobie, as claimed, due to her limited mobility due to polio and her debilitating accident.
“Polio never stopped her, not even the accident. She would climb on top of the refrigerator and say you didn’t clean in here.” Adam Garcia Fajardodirector of the new museum, tells the Observer, while also admitting that there is no proof of authorship.
Kahlo’s granddaughter Mara Romeo Kahlo lived in Casa Roja until 2023. “I don’t care if they say it was or wasn’t,” she says of Le Monde’s reporting. “I was eight or nine years old, I always saw those paintings on the wall. It’s just a strange thing to do without backing it up with at least some scientific research or something. My mother and my grandmother always talked about the mural, they say it was by Frida.”
Romeo’s daughter, Frieda Hentschelrecalls one of Kahlo’s students visiting the house and confirming that he and his classmate did not paint it, saying he remembers the mural from visits dating back to the late 1940s. While Christina, Frida’s younger sister, also liked to paint, neither Romeo nor Hentschel believe it is her work.
“There’s no doubt it was in the Kahlo family images,” insists Fajardo, noting that Kahlo featured grapefruit in her 1928 still life. Portrait of Cristina, my sister. “There’s a signature that’s blurred, and you have the bougainvillea and the sparrows are representative of an open house where everyone can come. It could be Frida, I’m not saying it’s her. We think it was painted around 1938. Legally, the mural can’t be traced to Frida.”
Casa Roja is filled with ephemera, letters, postcards, a dark room and photos taken by the artist’s father, William Kahloa German immigrant who adopted the Spanish for his given name, Wilhelm. A successful photographer in turn-of-the-century Mexico City, he spent his free time painting still lifes and outdoor scenes, sometimes finding his lost supplies in the hands of his third daughter, Frida. When she was old enough, he hired her to color his pictures, giving her lessons in composition and color.
Ironically, the tram accident likely played a large role in Kahlo becoming an artist. She was attending medical school at the time and planned to become a doctor. But the accident left him bedridden with little to relieve his boredom but to paint. This also accounts for the proliferation of self-portraits throughout her career (over 50), as there were so few subjects worthy of painting.
Kahlo married Diego Rivera in 1929 and he paid off the mortgage on Casa Azul in 1931 when Guillermo and Matilde (who died in 1932) moved into Casa Roja. There, Kahlo sought refuge from her stormy marriage from 1934-35 after discovering an affair between her beloved younger sister, Christina, and Rivera.
“We don’t have evidence for that,” Fajardo counters. “But what we do know about the relationship between the two sisters, it never stopped. They didn’t break up or split up. Frida always considered Christina the other half of her heart. Every letter she wrote to her was full of love. So, for someone who was betrayed by a sister, that doesn’t seem to be true.”
After Kahlo’s death in 1954, Rivera played an important role in creating the mythos around his wife, but it wasn’t until his death in 1957 that she became a feminist icon. “She began to grow in the minds and hearts of the people who saw her art,” says Fajardo, who sees the 1983 biography by Hayden Herrera as central to the public’s perception of Kahlo, followed by the 2002 film starring Salma Hayek. “The family wants to show that Frida was also a really living character. This space talks about Frida’s intimate life when she was a child and then, the circle of love that was close to Frida, although there were those who tried to monopolize the story.”
The gift shop at Casa Roja features all things Frida, from replicas of her clothing to stationery inspired by her childhood photographs. Open to question is whether Kahlo—an anti-capitalist who joined the Mexican Communist Party in 1927 and hosted (and slept with) Leon Trotsky at Casa Azul—would approve.
“You won’t see an exploitation of Frida’s imagery,” Fajardo says of the gift shop. “To transform a Barbie into Frida, I wouldn’t do that. It’s disrespectful to the family.” He alludes to an ongoing court battle pitting the Frida Kahlo Corporation against Familia Kahlospecifically Romeo, was filed in 2018 after the former sold the rights to Kahlo’s image to Mattel who then produced a Barbie doll inspired by Frida Kahlo. After years of legal wrangling, in April the 11th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals reinstated the corporation’s lawsuit against Romeo, suing the family for tortious interference, exposing them to millions in damages. Proceedings are likely to take place later this year.
“This is the last fight, and we’re positive it’s going to come our way. They’re going to have to decide in our favor,” Hentschel says, with Romeo adding, “They can’t steal my story, my life, my everything. I believe the world will say we’re in the right part, because it’s ours, right?”
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