Talks + Lectures

Thursday, July 10, 2025
6:30–7:30 pm
$8 (VMFA members $5)
Leslie Cheek Theater

Celia Stahr, PhD, is the author of Frida in America and professor at the University of San Francisco. Dr. Stahr will discuss Frida Kahlo’s pivotal three years living in the United States during the Depression era. It was a time when Kahlo found her artistic voice and created some of her most blatantly political paintings. With the US economy bottoming out, racial tensions boiling over, and the rise of fascism abroad, Kahlo acknowledged, “In 1933–34, I was very interested in political things.” In this talk, Dr. Stahr will explore some of the political issues that inspired paintings such as My Dress Hangs There.
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My Dress Hangs There, 1933, Frida Kahlo (Mexican, 1907–1954), oil and collage on masonite. Colección FEMSA ©️ 2025 Banco de México Diego Rivera Frida Kahlo Museums Trust, Mexico, D.F. / Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York, photograph by Humberto Tachiquin "Tachi"

Thursday, August 14, 2025
6:30–7:30 pm
$8 (VMFA members $5)
Leslie Cheek Theater

Join us for a talk that reconsiders Frida Kahlo’s relationship with surrealism—suggesting that, even as she refused the label, her fearless exploration of identity, pain, and revolution embodied the true spirit of surrealist revolt. 

Dr. Elliott King is co-editor of Frida & Diego: Passion, Politics and Painting, Associate Professor of Art History at Washington and Lee University. Reflecting on André Breton’s enthusiastic encounter with her paintings in 1937, Dr. King will explore whether Kahlo belongs to surrealism by examining how we define the movement: If surrealism is understood narrowly as "melting clocks," bowler hats, and unconscious automatism, Kahlo stands apart. But if we return to surrealism’s revolutionary roots—its commitment to freedom of thought and radical self-expression—Kahlo’s art resonates deeply with those aims. 
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Frida Kahlo, 1931, Imogen Cunningham (American, 1883–1976), gelatin silver print. Private Collection ©️ 2025 Imogen Cunningham Trust, ImogenCunningham.com