MEXICO CITY.- The Museo del Palacio de Bellas Artes opened last night the largest Frida Kahlo exhibition titled Frida Kahlo 1907.2007. National Hommage, on view through August 19, 2007. This exhibition is part of the celebration for the centennial of Frida Kahlo’s birth in 1907. She is one of the greatest representatives of Mexican culture. The exhibition is a recognition of the importance of Frida’s work and what she gave to art.

According to Roxana Velásquez, director of the MPBA, the exhibition includes a total of 354 works: 65 oil paintings, 45 drawings, 11 water colors, and 5 etchings. There are also around 50 letters, more than 100 personal photographs that reflect the social-political context that the artist lived in.

A curatorial committee was formed for this exhibition with Juan Rafael Coronel Rivera, Roxana Velásquez, Salomón Grinberg, Cristina Kahlo, Américo Sánchez and Roxana Velásquez.

“A great effort was made to gather these works and to present the most complete Frida Kahlo exhibition that has ever been on view in Mexico or anywhere in the world. We had the collaboration of 69 institutions, national and international collections,” said Roxana Velásquez. To her Frida is a fascinating character who had “one of the most interesting lives for the different areas in which she worked in: artist, intellectual, social activist and politics, great writer and revolutionary,” she added.

Velásquez states, “Frida the artist and the character is inseparable. What makes this exhibition unique is that it shows both of these aspects. Efforts were focused on bringing the greatest amount of work that is difficult to access for the Mexican public.”