Post by The Museum of Modern Art

🎂 On this day 119 years ago, Frida Kahlo was born in Mexico City! Born on July 6, 1907, Kahlo began painting in 1925, while recovering from a near-fatal bus accident. Over the next three decades, she produced a relatively small yet arresting body of work. In meticulously executed paintings, Kahlo portrayed herself again and again, and in her self-portraits explored the many facets of her identity. Kahlo’s self-portrait “Fulang-Chang and I” features an intricately detailed pink ribbon connecting Kahlo and her beloved pet spider monkey, Fulang-Chang. The artist later paired the self-portrait with a mirror, a tool she also often used to aid in her painting. In 1938, André Breton, the leader of the Surrealist movement, met Kahlo during a visit to Mexico City. He described Kahlo’s work as Surrealist, particularly because of its entanglement with her dreams. When asked about it, Kahlo responded: “I never painted dreams. I painted my own reality.” 🪞 “Fulang-Chang and I” is on view now at MoMA as part of “Frida and Diego: The Last Dream.” The exhibition, a first-of-its-kind collaboration with The Metropolitan Opera, is on view through September 12 alongside artworks celebrating both Kahlo and Diego Rivera—two of Mexico’s most beloved icons of 20th-century art. — [1-2, 4] Frida Kahlo. “Fulang-Chang and I.” 1937 (assembled after 1939). Mary Sklar Bequest. © 2026 Banco de México Diego Rivera Frida Kahlo Museums Trust, Mexico, D.F. / Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York. [3] Installation view of the exhibition "Frida and Diego: The Last Dream” at The Museum of Modern Art. March 28, 2026–September 12, 2026. Photograph by Jonathan Dorado.