Becoming Frida Kahlo

Frida Kahlo on Bench, 1939. From “Becoming Frida Kahlo.

Credit: Courtesy of Nickolas Muray Photo Archives

This new three-part documentary series strips away the myths to reveal the real Frida – a passionate and brilliant artist living through extraordinary times.

Becoming Frida Kahlo, airing Tuesdays, September 19, 26 and October 3 at 9 p.m. on WXXI-TV, explores the major events of Kahlo's life, both personal and political, from her lifelong health problems to her complicated relationship with artist Diego Rivera, whom she married not once but twice. Their shared political commitment made both artists controversial figures – from their association with Russian revolutionary Leon Trotsky in Mexico to their paradoxical relationships with some of America’s wealthiest figures. 

Throughout her life Kahlo used her artwork as a way to process her own emotions, producing what are now some of the most valuable–and most widely reproduced– paintings of the twentieth century. Featuring interviews with Frida Kahlo’s great-niece Cristina Kahlo, Diego Rivera’s grandson Juan Coronel Rivera, biographers, art historians and more.

WXXI is proud to partner with Geva Theatre as a media sponsor of their new production Frida…A Self Portrait, on stage October 17 through November 12.  To learn more, visit gevatheatre.org