Frida Kahlo’s art and story speak to untold thousands — or a specific number of thousands, as defined by the Walker’s attendance during the run of Frida Kahlo. For the author of Teleflora’s Flower Blog (”for everyone who’s as passionate about flowers as we are.”), who saw the exhibition in Philadelphia, Frida’s connection to nature and, particularly, flowers is undeniable. That connection appeared further enhanced, she writes, by the flower arrangement for an event at the Philadelphia Museum of Art. The author contacted Walker associate curator Betsy Carpenter, who organized the exhibition’s premier at the Walker last fall, to elaborate on that connection.
Carpenter, quoted in Flower Blog, says “Kahlo may have also been drawn to flowers because she was fascinated with the theme of fertility, which reinforced her conviction of the unity of all things--human beings, flower and plants, animals, the earth, the sun and moon, and the universe. This idea of interconnectedness prompted her to paint several hybrids that combine plant and animal forms with human anatomy. This fascination with fertility may also have come in part from Kahlo's thwarted wish to have a child.”