Frida Kahlo’s Month in Paris: A Friendship with Mary Reynolds

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

February 19, 2025

CHICAGO—The Art Institute of Chicago is pleased to announce Frida Kahlo’s Month in Paris: A Friendship with Mary Reynolds, on view from March 29–July 13, 2025. This is the first exhibition of Frida Kahlo’s work organized by the Art Institute of Chicago, and it focuses on a pivotal period in 1939 when Kahlo resided at the Paris home of Mary Reynolds, an American avant-garde bookbinder, whose home was a hub for the city’s artistic community.

The tightly-focused exhibition includes extraordinary loans from public and private collections across the United States, Mexico, and Europe, and also draws on the Art Institute’s own extensive Mary Reynolds Collection. The show features 100 objects, including seven of Kahlo’s most important self-portraits, letters written by Kahlo recounting her time in Paris, book bindings, works on paper, photographs, and more.

The show illuminates the period of Kahlo’s rise as an international artist and her serendipitous meeting with Mary Reynolds, a lesser-known but highly compelling artist and maker of innovative, one-of-a-kind book bindings. During Kahlo’s first and only trip to Paris in 1939, she fell ill and was invited by Reynolds to recover at her home. This home—where Reynolds lived with long-time partner Marcel Duchamp—was a living work of art and abundantly installed with their own artworks, from unique books to paintings and sculptures from close friends and artists. In this space and in her friendship with Reynolds, Kahlo found new inspiration.

“We are thrilled to be exhibiting Kahlo’s work for the first time at the Art Institute, and to shed light on this specific and fascinating chapter of Kahlo’s early career, when her life intersected with our museum’s history and holdings” said Caitlin Haskell, Gary C. and Frances Comer Senior Curator of Modern and Contemporary Art. “The show is grounded in the real-life encounter of Kahlo and Reynolds in February and March 1939, and it celebrates a pivotal moment that set Kahlo on a new path for the remainder of her career.”

In addition to works by Kahlo and Reynolds, the exhibition also incorporates many artworks created for Reynolds by artists who socialized in her home and welcomed Kahlo into their circle, including Man Ray, Yves Tanguy, and Constantin Brâncuși. These works form a collective portrait of the Paris avant-garde during Kahlo’s time in Europe. This highly consequential engagement with the French Surrealists speaks to a powerful moment of cultural exchange, in which Kahlo and Reynolds navigated issues of identity and community on the eve of World War II. 

Frida Kahlo’s Month in Paris: A Friendship with Mary Reynolds is curated by Caitlin Haskell, Gary C. and Frances Comer Senior Curator of Modern and Contemporary Art, with Tamar Kharatishvili, Daniel F. and Ada L. Rice Research Fellow in Modern Art, and Alivé Piliado, curatorial associate, National Museum of Mexican Art in Chicago.

Sponsors

Major support for Frida Kahlo’s Month in Paris: A Friendship with Mary Reynolds is provided by the Zell Family Foundation, Pat and Ron Taylor, Constance and David Coolidge, The Donnelly Family Foundation, Natasha Henner and Bala Ragothaman, and Kathy and Chuck Harper.

Additional support is provided by