Self-portraits, Surrealism and sanitary pads: what to expect from Tate Modern's Frida Kahlo show

The curators of the forthcoming blockbuster Frida Kahlo show at Tate Modern have revealed more details about the exhibition, highlighting the late Mexican artist’s “impact on women artists across Mexico, the Americas and Europe from 1970 to today”. Frida: the Making of an Icon (25 June-3 January 2027) also includes highly personal works reflecting her suffering post-miscarriage, along with pieces that explore her “complex relationship with the United States”, the co-curator Tobias Ostrander said at a press briefing.

The exhibition, sponsored by Bank of America, includes more than 30 works by Kahlo exhibited alongside photographs and personal artefacts. It features an image of the nurse Eva Frederick who cared for Kahlo following a miscarriage in Detroit, while the painting My Dress Hangs There (1933-38) “captures her ambivalence toward the United States”, a Tate statement says.

An important section of the show examines Kahlo’s links to Surrealism, which developed following an exhibition of her works in Paris in 1939. Kahlo was invited by André Breton and the Surrealists to the French capital to present 18 small-format pictures in the group exhibition Mexico. The self-portrait The Frame (1938), which was included in the Paris show, will be in the Tate exhibition.

“When we opened the Kahlo show in 2005 [at Tate Modern], she was one of the relatively few female artists being shown in museums,” said Catherine Wood, the director of programme at Tate Modern. “Now it is interesting to see how Kahlo has shaped the canon for future generations.”

Works such as Self-Portrait with Thorn Necklace and Hummingbird (1940), shown in the UK for the first time, will be presented alongside portraits of contemporary artists who have imitated Frida such as Tracey Emin and Yasumasa Morimura of Japan. The final section focuses on "Fridamania", exploring how the artist’s image dominates popular culture today, appearing on toys, dolls and sanitary pads. The exhibition will travel from the Museum of Fine Arts in Houston, where it is on show until 17 May.