Self-Portrait with Monkey

Self-Portrait with Monkey
Spanish: Autorretrato con mono
ArtistFrida Kahlo
Year1938
TypeOil on masonite
Dimensions40.6 cm × 30.5 cm (16.0 in × 12.0 in)
LocationAlbright–Knox Art Gallery, Buffalo, New York

Self-Portrait with Monkey (Autorretrato con mono in Spanish) is an oil on masonite painting by Mexican artist Frida Kahlo, commissioned in 1938 by A. Conger Goodyear, then president of the Museum of Modern Art in New York City. It is one of the many self-portraits painted by Kahlo for friends and patrons during her career.[1]

The commission came after Goodyear attended Kahlo's first solo exhibition in November 1938 at the Julien Levy Gallery in New York. There, Goodyear admired Kahlo's 1937 painting Fulang-Chang and I, which depicted Kahlo with her pet monkey, but Kahlo had already promised this painting to her friend Mary Schapiro Sklar.[2]

The original is housed at the Albright–Knox Art Gallery in Buffalo, New York.[3] American singer-songwriter Madonna acquired this painting, and in 2001 she lent this piece at the Tate Modern exhibition Surrealism: Desire Unbound, which was the first British exhibition dedicated to Kahlo.[4][5]

  1. ^ "Self-Portrait with Monkey". The Life and Times of Frida Kahlo. PBS. Retrieved 24 May 2013.
  2. ^ Herrera, Hayden (2002) [1983]. Frida: A Biography of Frida Kahlo. Harper Perennial. pp. 230–233. ISBN 978-0-06-008589-6.
  3. ^ "Self-Portrait with Monkey". Albright-Knox Art Gallery. Retrieved 2 October 2013.
  4. ^ "Madonna lends painting by Frida Kahlo to Tate Modern". Tate. October 4, 2001. Archived from the original on June 11, 2022. Retrieved June 11, 2022.
  5. ^ Leitch, Luke (April 12, 2012). "Madonna shows us her collection". Evening Standard. Archived from the original on June 11, 2022. Retrieved June 11, 2022.