Left: Frida Kahlo. Self-Portrait with Cropped Hair (Autorretrato con pelo cortado), 1940. The Museum of Modern Art, New York, Gift of Edgar Kaufmann, Jr., 3.1943. © 2025 Banco de México Diego Rivera Frida Kahlo Museums Trust, Mexico, D.F. / Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York. Digital Image © 2025 MoMA, N.Y; Right: Mary Reynolds, written by Alfred Jarry. Gestes et opinions du docteur Faustroll, pataphysicien (Exploits and Opinions of Doctor Faustroll, Pataphysician), published 1923, bound 1930–42 or 1945–50. The Art Institute of Chicago, Ryerson and Burnham Libraries, Mary Reynolds Collection.
Join Caitlin Haskell, Gary C. and Frances Comer Senior Curator in Modern and Contemporary Art, for an exclusive look into Frida Kahlo’s Month in Paris: A Friendship with Mary Reynolds
This exhibition—the Art Institute’s first presentation of Kahlo’s work—focuses on her month-long stay at the home of Mary Reynolds, an avant-garde bookbinder best known today as Marcel Duchamp’s partner. Drawing upon the extensive Mary Reynolds Collection at the Art Institute of Chicago and extraordinary Kahlo loans from public and private collections in the U.S., Mexico, and Europe, we tell this story with unrivaled accuracy, presenting Kahlo among a cast of characters that included not only Reynolds and Duchamp, but also Man Ray, Constantin Brancusi, and others. Shedding light on a little-known chapter of 20th-century art history, the exhibition recounts the legacy of two women navigating identity, partnership, and cross-cultural exchange on the eve of World War II.
Programming for Frida Kahlo’s Month in Paris: A Friendship with Mary Reynolds is made possible by the Frank J. Mooney Memorial Fund.
Frida Kahlo, 1938
Nickolas Muray. Courtesy of the Nickolas Muray Estate. Photo by Jamie Stukenberg.
Mary Reynolds, 1930
Man Ray. Archivo Diego Rivera y Frida Kahlo, Museo Frida Kahlo. © 2025 Man Ray Trust / Artist Rights Society (ARS) New York / ADAGP Paris.
About the Speaker
Caitlin Haskell serves as the Gary C. and Frances Comer Senior Curator in Modern and Contemporary Art and director of Ray Johnson Collections and Research at the Art Institute of Chicago. An expert on the art and criticism of the historical avant-gardes, she joined the Art Institute in 2018. Along with Tamar Kharatishvili and Alivé Piliado, she is the curator of Frida Kahlo’s Month in Paris: A Friendship with Mary Reynolds (2025). Haskell’s recent exhibitions and catalogues include, among others, Remedios Varo: Science Fictions (2023), Cezanne (2022), Ray Johnson c/o (2021), and René Magritte: The Fifth Season (2018).
If you have any questions about programming, please reach out to museum-programs@artic.edu.
Closed captioning will be available for this program. For questions related to accessibility accommodations, please email access@artic.edu.
