Frida Kahlo held her first solo exhibition in New York in 1938.
The exhibition took place at the Julien Levy Gallery in Manhattan. It was an important early breakthrough because Kahlo was still better known in some circles as the partner of muralist Diego Rivera than as an artist with an independent reputation. The show helped establish her work before later international exhibitions and museum recognition.
The French writer and surrealist poet André Breton had seen Kahlo’s paintings and supported their presentation in the United States. Breton’s interpretation of her work influenced how it was marketed, although Kahlo resisted being reduced to a European surrealist category and emphasized the personal and Mexican foundations of her art.
Kahlo’s New York exhibition predates her first solo show in Paris. Her 1938 success also came before the major posthumous expansion of her fame, which grew substantially after her death in 1954.