Color Our World with Frida Kahlo and Mexican Modernism

Delve deeper into the Virginia Museum of Fine Arts Frida Kahlo exhibit, “Frida: Beyond the Myth,” in this talk with art historian Dr. Jeanette Nicewinter, Ph.D. 

Explore Frida Kahlo’s work within the larger cultural and societal context of post-Revolution Mexico. Frida’s revolutionary politics and beliefs often informed her work, and more broadly her identity, and were part of a much larger movement related to modernism and “indigenismo” in Mexico after the Revolution. Frida’s work will be placed in conversation with works by other Mexican modernist, such as Diego Rivera, to elucidate how Kahlo used the vernacular of post-revolution Mexican modernism within her artworks. 

Dr. Nicewinter is an Assistant Professor of Art History at Northern Virginia Community College. She holds a Ph.D. in Art Historical Studies from Virginia Commonwealth University, Richmond, with a major in Pre-Columbian Art and a minor in Modern Art and Theory. She also holds an MA in Art History from VCU and a BFA in Studio Arts from the University of Tampa, Tampa, Florida. She was a Fellow at the National Endowment for the Humanities Summer Institutes in 2014 (Mexico) and 2018 (Hill Museum and Manuscript Library). Her scholarship addresses the art of pre-Hispanic Peru, but her interests range further and include pre-Hispanic Mexico, colonial Latin America, and contemporary Native American Art.

This program has been organized by the Virginia Museum of Fine Arts and is supported, in part, by the Paul Mellon Endowment and the Jean Stafford Camp Memorial Fund.