Frida Kahlo show poised to open in Coventry

An exhibition that explores the life and work of Mexican painter Frida Kahlo aims to show visitors something new, its artistic director says. 

The show in Coventry opens to the public at the Reel Store from Friday until 29 January. 

Kahlo's personal diary is being used to put the exhibition together, organisers say. 

"People will find something new, something they haven't seen before," artistic director Carla Prat says. 

The exhibition has been put together in three stages, to cover the artist's life as a public figure in the 1930s and 40s, her personal story in Mexico and finally The Blue House in Mexico City where she lived and painted. 

More than 100 works of art, literary works, and photographs make up the show with a voiceover highlighting Kahlo's writings. 

Ms Prat said she hoped people who come to the event in Coventry are impressed and excited by what they see and hear. 

"I hope they get emotional given the way we worked this exhibition which follows the ideas of inviting people to learn about her, to discover Frida in another way, to give her a voice," she said. 

Kahlo is widely regarded as one of the greatest painters of the 20th Century and was famed for her intimate self-portraits that reflected her pain and isolation.

She was known for her distinctive look - the dresses and flowered hair, the monobrow and the piercing stare.

The artist, who lived from 1907 to 1954, survived polio and a serious bus crash and had a complex, passionate marriage to fellow artist Diego Rivera. 

Her work promotes indigenous Mexican culture and chronicles her painful relationship with her body.

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