Frida Kahlo's Birthplace Opens as Museum in Mexico City

The Casa Roja, the birthplace and lifelong home of Frida Kahlo in Mexico City's Coyoacán neighborhood, has opened as the Museo Casa Kahlo. The museum, painted in the family's favorite red, reveals the story of the entire Kahlo family, not just the artist. Director Adán García describes the house as a living witness to the family's joys and sorrows. A new section highlights Frida's sister Cristina Kahlo, an activist and founder of an association for single mothers, through family correspondence, embroidered clothing, and pre-Hispanic jewelry. The basement, Frida's secret refuge, contains her childhood microscope, a collection of ex-votos she painted, and Asian dolls from a San Francisco trip. Restored floral murals by Frida appear in the kitchen. Artworks include 'Un Vassoio di Papaveri,' one of her early canvases, and a mirror made for a New York exhibition. Architect David Rockwell, a Kahlo Foundation board member, oversaw the museographic project emphasizing authenticity with natural materials and original elements like curved stairs and the bathroom evoking 'What the Water Gave Me' (1938).