Austin residents gathered to listen to Hayden Herrera, author of “Frida: A Biography of Frida Kahlo,” speak about the Mexican artist Thursday night at the Harry Ransom Center.
Guests filled the main auditorium to capacity to watch the lecture on a plasma screen television, and the overflow of people streamed into the packed lobby, which was standing room only.
Herrera’s visit was part of a homecoming ceremony to welcome back one of Kahlo’s most famous paintings, “Self-Portrait with Thorn Necklace and Hummingbird,” which recently returned to the Ransom Center from the Walker Art Center in Minneapolis, Minn.
The portrait was on loan to the Walker Center as part of a traveling retrospective exhibition, “Frida Kahlo.” The exhibition was organized to celebrate what would have been Kahlo’s 100th birthday and included the oil painting that was also in Kahlo’s first solo exhibition in the U.S. in 1978.
Along with the painting’s return, the event also marked Herrera’s return to Austin.
“Frida’s presence is much stronger in the world now than when I was here 30 years ago,” Herrera said at the beginning of the lecture.
Kahlo’s prominence has grown so greatly that she is now ubiquitously featured on magnets, posters and even mouse pads, all of which Herrera displayed photos of on the display screen next to the lecture stand.
Herrera also made a special note on the artist, who was the first Hispanic woman to appear on a U.S. Postal Service stamp. The stamp, released in 2001, caused an uproar because of Kahlo’s communist ties, she said.
Herrera attributed the rise of Kahlo’s public recognition to a number of influences, including the rise of feminism and a burgeoning Chicano culture in the U.S. There were also numerous books and movies centered on Kahlo in the decades since her first U.S. exhibition, including Herrera’s biography, which went on to heavily inspire and influence the writing of 2002’s “Frida”, starring Salma Hayek.
Throughout the lecture, Herrera displayed photographs of Kahlo’s paintings on a large screen and provided commentary and brief histories for each painting.
Herrera stressed that loneliness was the most prevalent and pervasive theme in all her works.
“Her art is emphatically personal,” she said.
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