How to See Frida Kahlo’s Mexico City Home (Casa Azul)

Ask anyone that knows anything about Mexican art and culture, and you’ll quickly hear about Frida Kahlo. The renowned artist lived a life of adversity and heartbreak while producing incredible works and becoming a Mexican icon internationally. It probably comes as no surprise that the museum dedicated to Frida is one of the most popular attractions that Mexico City has to offer. Located in the Coyoacan neighbourhood, the Casa Azul was Frida’s home for much of her life, but today houses the Museo Frida Kahlo, a comprehensive tribute to her life’s work and story. Having watched the 2002 movie ‘Frida’ prior to my trip to Mexico, I got a lot out of my visit to this unique museum while spending time in the nation’s capital. If you’re remotely interested in the story behind this powerful and inspiring woman, make sure you include the Casa Azul on your itinerary!

• There’s so much to see in Mexico City. Its got the most museums of any city in the world after all! Check out my recommended itinerary for a first time visitor HERE.

Museo Frida Kahlo – The Basics:

• Where? Londres 247, Del Carmen, Coyoacan, Mexico.
• When? The Museo Frida Kahlo is open Tuesday to Sunday from 10.00am to 6.00pm (except Wednesdays, when it opens at 11.00am). Like most museums in Mexico City, it is closed on Mondays.
• How much? General Admission to the museum costs $250 MXN during the week, and $270 MXN on weekends. An additional $30 MXN is payable if you want to take photos inside the museum. Children 6 years and under can enter for free. Note, tickets must be purchased online in advance.
• How to get there: Coyoacan is about a 20 minute drive south of the Centro Historico. Given how cheap and safe Uber is in Mexico City, its the easiest way to get to the neighbourhood. Alternatively, you can take Metro Line 3 to Coyoacan station.

• Website: https://www.museofridakahlo.org.mx/

Who Was Frida Kahlo?

If you’re reading this post, chances are you know who Frida Kahlo is – its about a museum about her after all! But just in case, let me tell you a little about her fascinating tale. Frida was born in Coyoacan in 1907 to a Hungarian Jewish father and a mother from Oaxaca. Contracting polio at 6 years old, her right leg was permanently thinner than her left. If that wasn’t bad enough, if 1925 she was a victim in a horrible trolley accident in which she broke her right leg, collarbone and pelvis. While she made a recovery, she suffered much pain throughout the rest of her life. That pain would become a driving force, with both physical and emotional pain becoming a major theme in her works, which she started while healing in bed.

While painting at the Escuela Nacional Preparatoria (National Prep School) in the 1920s, Kahlo met the legendary artist Diego Rivera, 21 years her elder. They wed in 1929 and Kahlo’s work delved deeper into abstract and norm-questioning subjects in her paintings. During their time together, they would move in leftist circles with their contacts including Soviet exile Leon Trotsky, with whom Kahlo would have an affair. Despite unfaithfulness on both sides of their relationship, Diego and Kahlo would reconcile multiple times, ultimately remarrying in 1940 and moving back into the Casa Azul, Kahlo’s childhood home, shortly after.

Later in life as her health declined, Kahlo became confined to a wheelchair and eventually her bed. Her work didn’t stop though, and in 1953 she attended her first solo exhibition on a bed transported to the venue. A year later, Kahlo would die on the upper floor of Casa Azul. The house was converted into a museum dedicated to Frida’s life and works, opening in 1958 (a year after the death of Rivera, who played a role in the house’s redesign).

Kahlo’s popularity would only grow following her death. Renowned for being ahead of her time, the uniqueness of her works has resulted in her becoming one of the most recognisable names in modern art.

Visiting the Museo Frida Kahlo

You can’t miss the sight of the Casa Azul (literally Blue House) as you approach the Museo Frida Kahlo. If by some miracle you miss the bright blue hue of the building, you’ll definitely notice the crowds of people waiting outside to be admitted. As I’ve said, this Museum is EXTREMELY popular, and unlike most museums in Mexico City, you actually have to book your tickets in advance here – there’s no way to buy tickets at the door. Book your tickets as soon as you can too – they do sell out! When purchasing a ticket, you’ll be able to choose the time that you want to visit. Aim to get to the museum around 5 or 10 minutes beforehand and you’ll find a queue behind a sign with your time slot waiting to be called. Once you’re in, you can spend as long as you want inside the museum, though I found allocating roughly an hour was sufficient.

Museo Frida Kahlo’s Art Collection

If you take a left turn as you enter Casa Azul, you’ll come across a series of halls that take you through the ground floor of the house. The first few rooms contain some of the more famous pieces of Frida’s art spanning across her life. One of the first things you’ll see is a photo of Frida’s first self portrait from 1936. One of the most famous works is seen in the next room, which focuses on illustrations of Frida’s psyche in her art. The 1954 Viva la Vida (Long Live Life) depicts a series of watermelons containing this message. The fact that the work was completed days before Kahlo’s death conveys the strength and tenacity of a woman who loved life, despite facing so much adversity. In addition to to Frida’s painting, the series of rooms also contain photos of Kahlo and her adventures in life, as well as some select works by Diego Rivera.

The Upstairs Level

The contents of the Museum change as you reach the vibrantly coloured kitchen of Casa Azul. The rest of the interior tour consists of a series of rooms displayed in much the same way they would have been laid out during Frida’s life. An assortment of Frida’s personal belongings can be found throughout, ranging from letters and diaries to ceramics, as well as a collection of pre-Hispanic handicrafts. Upstairs, you’ll find Frida’s studio, which contains the actual wheelchair and easel, as well as the bed that Frida spent so much of her life in following the accident that rendered her disabled. Today, Frida’s death mask rests upon the bedspread, while her ashes sit on an altar on the dressing table.

This section of the museum is where it really thrived in my view. Walking through the preserved rooms really felt like going through a lived-in house, to the point that you would think Frida had just been there moments before your visit.

Other Highlights at the Museo Frida Kahlo

There’s more to see when you finish up your tour of the interior of Museo Frida Kahlo. The Casa Azul’s gardens are stunning and well worth spending time to relax in (especially as the inside of the house can get crowded). While these open spaces filled with greenery, water features and cacti are small, there’s no doubting their beauty. There’s a small cafe and souvenir shop here as well, and you’ll definitely want to get your mandatory photo of the mural proclaiming Frida and Diego’s time in the Blue House.

A second exhibit near the exit of Casa Azul contains an assortment of Frida’s unique dresses, including the Tehuana which she adopted as her signature style. This wardrobe was actually only discovered in 2004 when the bathrooms of the house were unsealed. Countless skirts, blouses, headdresses are on display, which will definitely interest any fashion connoisseurs. While I won’t claim to know anything about fashion, I really found it interesting how the clothing was shaped in a way to disguise Kahlo’s disabled form to create her iconic image that is still revered to this day.

Have you visited Museo Frida Kahlo? Or have you got a Mexico City trip coming up and are planning to visit? Let me know what has you most interested about Casa Azul. Hopefully this guide has given you an idea of what to expect in the Blue House of Frida Kahlo, the perfect start to a day in Coyoacan.