“They thought I was a surrealist but I wasn’t. I never painted dreams I painted my own reality.”

-FRIDA KAHLO

When you look at Frida’s self-portraits, especially in the flesh, you understand exactly what French surrealist writer, André Breton, meant when he wrote of Frida’s art as “a ribbon around a bomb.” Frida’s self-portraits were seeming contradictions: within them she could be both powerful and fragile, lost and found, broken but hopeful, both loved and unloved. A ribbon around a bomb. Perhaps this is the most accurate pronouncement of Frida’s work ever written.

Go see this show. It’s the best show we’ve seen at the AGO in years. Also, sorry for the lack of photos. We got busted by security early.