New exhibition offers an intimate peek into the lives and work of painter Frida Kahlo and avant-garde bookbinder Mary Reynolds
"Our telling of Kahlo and Reynolds’s story in the galleries not only shines a light on this little-known chapter in the two artists’ lives but also illuminates the remarkable history of two women navigating identity, partnership, and cross-cultural exchange on the eve of World War II. Their story, sparked by a chance encounter, reorients our understanding of how artists inspire one another both within and beyond the bounds of movements such as Surrealism."——Caitlin Haskell, Gary C. and Frances Comer senior curator of Modern and Contemporary Art, the Art Institute of Chicago
“Frida Kahlo’s Month in Paris” covers her first and only trip to Europe in 1939.
The Art Institute's Frida Kahlo’s Month in Paris: A Friendship with Mary Reynolds explores Kahlo's relationship with American avant-garde bookbinder Mary Reynolds and the resulting connections to the Surrealist art movement,including Reynolds's partner Marcel Duchamp. Kahlo resided in Reynolds’s Paris home from February 22 to Marcy 25, 1939.
Haskell confides that the impetus for this show was in a letter now held in the Archives of American Art. The letter, written to Hungarian-American photographer Nickolas Muray, was adorned with a remarkably well-preserved lipstick kiss. Kahlo describes her stay with Reynolds and an encounter with André Breton. Fortuitously, Reynolds’s brother, Frank Brookes Hubachek, was an Art Institute of Chicago Trustee. Upon her death in 1950, he worked closely with Duchamp to place Reynolds’s bindings and collection of books and papers at the Ryerson and Burnham Libraries of the Art Institute of Chicago. This trove of Mary Reynolds's work made Chicago the natural home for this unique show.
Looking for a reverie in another time and place? Go see this show!
The galleries evoke the warmth of Reynolds’s Paris home — sage blue-green walls and a large table lain with Reynolds's bindings — details taken from accounts by luminaries of the Parisian art scene.
The exhibition will be open through July 13, 2025. An additional $5 ticket is required for non-members.
Frida Kahlo's Month in Paris: A Friendship with Mary Reynolds, Edited by Caitlin Haskell with Tamar Kharatishvili and Alive Piliado Santana, The Art Institute of Chicago, 2025. A fantastic exhibition catalogue is available for purchase from the Art Institute Museum Shop.
Learn More
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Frida Kahlo and Mary Reynolds: A Serendipitous Meeting
In the early spring of 1939, the lives of artists Frida Kahlo and Mary Reyolds unexpectedly intersected during Kahlo’s Paris sojourn. -
Curator Caitlin Haskell on WBEZ's Reset
Listen to an interview with Caitlin Haskell, Gary C. and Frances Comer senior curator of Modern and Contemporary Art and curator of Frida Kahlo’s Month in Paris: A Friendship with Mary Reynolds at the Art Institute of Chicago on WBEZ's Reset. -
The Modern Canon & 20th Century Discoveries at the Art Institute of Chicago: A Conversation with Caitlin Haskell
We spoke with curator Caitlin Haskell upon the opening of Remedios Varo: Science Fictions, a show noted for its otherworldly beauty, curiosity and provocative humor. Caitlin is the Gary C. and Frances Comer Curator in Modern and Contemporary Art and director of Ray Johnson Collections and Research. A scholar of 20th-century painting and sculpture, her exhibitions and publications have addressed the production and critical reception of modern art in Europe and the Americas.