For three generations, art lovers have been drawn to a residential corner of the Coyoacán section of Mexico City to visit Casa Azul, the house where Frida Kahlo was born, lived, loved and painted for more than 40 years. Bearing witness to a happy past, its cobalt walls surround a courtyard and garden cooled by fountains and shaded paths. Its rooms contain a museum dedicated to the beloved artist, with family photos and memorabilia, as well as a bed where he spent much of his time painting while recovering from a horrific street car accident in which he was impaled on a metal pole. White with yellow and blue tiles, the kitchen includes his names and the love of his life and the patience of his presence, Diego Rivera, written on the walls. His studio is decorated with paintings and props, as well as an easel and a wheelchair.
But while Casa Azul remains a bucket list destination for any Kahlo lover, a second museum dedicated to the artist, just a few blocks away, opened last September. Casa Roja pulls back the curtain on Kahlo’s family life and, perhaps, presents a new work in her career—a kitchen painting, El mesón de los gorriones (“The Table of Scroungers”). It includes branches of a vine like the one growing in the backyard, a bougainvillea and a banner with the title raised by sparrows. Although the mural is unsigned, the family believes it is Kahlo’s work, despite French newspaper Le Monde citing German art historian Helga Prignitz-Poda and biographer Luis-Martín Lozano, experts in Kahlo’s work, insisting she did not paint it. They also asserted that the basement could not have been the singer’s secret case, as claimed, due to his inability to walk due to polio and his debilitating danger.
“Polero did not stop him, even the accident did not stop him, he would climb on top of the refrigerator and say that you did not clean here,” said Adán García Fajardo, the director of the new museum, told the Observer, while admitting that there is no evidence that he was written.
Kahlo’s granddaughter, Mara Romeo Kahlo lived in Casa Roja until 2023. “I don’t care if they say it was or wasn’t,” he said as reported by Le Monde. “I was eight or nine years old, I always saw those paintings on the wall. It’s just weird to do without at least backing it up with some scholarly research or something.” My mother and grandmother always talked about the mural, saying it was from Frida.”
Romeo’s daughter, Frida Hentschel, remembers one of Kahlo’s students visiting the house and confirming that she and her classmate did not paint it, saying she remembers the mural from a visit as far back as the late 1940s. Although Christina, Frida’s younger sister, also likes to draw, neither Romeo nor Hentschel believe that it is her job.
“There’s no doubt it was in the Kahlo family portrait,” Fajardo insists, noting that Kahlo included a grapefruit in her 1928 life. Photo of Cristina, My Sister. “There’s a signature that didn’t show up well, and she has bougainvillea and sparrows representing an open house where everyone can come. It could be Frida, I’m not saying it’s hers.
Casa Roja is filled with ephemera, books, postcards, a dark room and photographs taken by the artist’s father, Guillermo Kahlo, a German immigrant who adopted the Spanish by his given name, Wilhelm. A successful photographer in turn-of-the-century Mexico City, he spent his free time painting still lifes and exteriors, sometimes finding his lost objects in the hands of his third daughter, Frida. When she was old enough, he hired her to type his pictures, teaching her composition and color lessons.
Ironically, a car accident probably played a big role in Kahlo becoming a singer. At the time he was attending medical school and planned to become a doctor. But the accident left him bedridden with few things to do but paint. It also creates an increase in self-portraits throughout his career (more than 50), as there were few subjects worthy of painting.
Kahlo married Diego Rivera in 1929, and paid off the mortgage on Casa Azul in 1931 when Guillermo and Matilde (who died in 1932) moved to Casa Roja. There, Kahlo sought refuge from her stormy marriage from 1934-35 after discovering an affair between her beloved sister, Christina, and Rivera.
“We have no proof of that,” Fajardo replied. But what we know about the relationship of these two sisters did not end. They never separated or separated. Frida always thought of Christina as a part of her heart. All the letters she wrote to her were full of love. Therefore, for someone who was betrayed by her sister, this does not seem to be true.
After Kahlo’s death in 1954, Rivera contributed to the mythology surrounding his wife, but it wasn’t until her death in 1957 that he became a feminist icon. “She began to grow in the minds and hearts of people who saw her art,” said Fajardo, who sees Hayden Herrera’s 1983 biography as pivotal in public perception of Kahlo, followed by the 2002 film starring Salma Hayek. “The family wants to show that Frida was also a real living person. This space talks about Frida’s private life when she was a child and later, the circle of love that was close to Frida even though there were those who tried to control the story.”
The gift shop at Casa Roja includes all things Frida, from replicas of her clothes to stationery inspired by her childhood photos. What is open to question is whether Kahlo—an anti-capitalist who joined the Mexican Communist Party in 1927 and hosted (and slept with) Leon Trotsky at Casa Azul—would agree.
“You won’t see any abuse of Frida’s pictures,” Fajardo said of the gift shop. “Turning Barbie into Frida, I won’t do that. It’s disrespectful to the family.” He’s talking about the ongoing court case between Frida Kahlo Corporation and Familia Kahlo, specifically Romeo, which was filed in 2018 after the former sold the rights to Kahlo’s image to Mattel who then produced a Frida Kahlo-inspired Barbie doll. After years of legal wrangling, in April the 11th US Circuit Court of Appeals reinstated the federal lawsuit against Romeo, suing the family for interference, potentially exposing them to millions in damages. The trial is likely to take place later this year.
“This is the last battle, and we hope that this will come to us. They will have to rule in our favor,” said Hentschel, with Romeo adding, “They will not steal my history, my life, my everything.
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