Iconic Frida Kahlo Self-Portrait Returns Home to Austin

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One of Frida Kahlo’s self-portraits has returned home this month to Austin’s Harry Ransom Center at the University of Texas campus.

The “Self-Portrait with Thorn Necklace and Hummingbird,” acquired by the Ransom Center in 1965, is one of 55 self-portraits Kahlo painted throughout her life. It has been displayed in galleries and museums around the world, most recently at the Bendigo Art Gallery in Australia.

Now, Austinites can see it back on display at the Ransom Center lobby in August through early January 2026, when it leaves again on loan to the Museum of Fine Arts in Houston.

A window into Frida’s mind

Tracy Bonfitto, an art curator at the Harry Ransom Center, said Kahlo painted this self portrait in 1940 during one of the most productive periods in her career.

“She had been painting for a number of years, but she had not been exhibited until 1938,” Bonfitto said. “She was just kind of in her early years of seeing herself as a successful artist.”

As her career was taking off, Kahlo was struggling in her personal life. The year prior, she divorced her husband, fellow Mexican painter Diego Rivera.

“This painting was painted during that one year window of time where she was divorced from Diego Rivera and really sort of simultaneously working hard to see if that relationship could continue, but also being pretty angry with him,” Bonfitto said.

At the end of that same year, her near decade-long love affair with Hungarian-born photographer Nickolas Muray came to an end. Kahlo gifted the portrait to Muray after she finished it, and re-married Rivera in December of 1940.

The rest of Nickolas Muray’s collection

The painting was acquired by the Ransom Center in the 1960s as part of a collection of works from Kahlo and other Mexican painters owned by Muray. The end of her affair with Muray in 1939 was not the end of her personal relationship with the photographer.

“We know from extensive letters in the archives of the Casa Azul and also the Archives of American Art at the Smithsonian that they kept in contact, pretty frequent contact, letter writing back and forth,” Bonfitto said.

Muray was also a financial supporter of Kahlo’s career right up to her death in 1954. The collection he assembled also features “Still Life with Parrot and Fruit,” painted by Kahlo in 1951, and the drawing “Diego y Yo” from 1930. Muray’s collection featured other works from seminal Mexican artists from the 20th century, including Rufino Tamayo and Miguel Covarrubias.

The self portrait is the only piece the Ransom Center will display from the collection, but there are plans to display the entire collection in 2027.