In September 1925, at the age of 18, Frida Kahlo was in a horrifying bus accident that placed her in a full-body cast for three months. Following the crash, Kahlo began to paint to alleviate her boredom. Throughout her lifetime, she made numerous self-portraits. Kahlo’s furry companion in Self-Portrait with Monkey, 1938, is Fulang-Chang, a pet spider monkey whom the artist adored for his childlike and playful nature. Self-Portrait with Monkey will be on view in Menagerie: Animals on View from March 11 through June 4, 2017.
One of the few female painters associated with Impressionism, Berthe Morisot created a niche for herself with instinctive paintings of domestic life. In 1874, she was invited to exhibit in the first Impressionist exhibition and ultimately participated in seven of the Impressionists’ eight group exhibitions. Morisot’s Femme cousant (Woman Sewing), ca. 1879, was recently on view in 2015–2016’s Monet and the Impressionist Revolution, 1860–1910 along with Rosa Bonheur’s The Horse Fair.
In her earliest works, Georgia O’Keeffe sought to depict natural forces and forms. Whether abstract or more representational, her imagery remained rooted in her experience of the landscape. In 2005, the Albright-Knox hosted Georgia O'Keeffe and New Mexico: A Sense of Place, organized by the Georgia O’Keeffe Museum. The Albright-Knox owns two works by O’Keeffe; Black Spot No. 3, 1919, is among the earliest of the artist’s abstract works and was recently on view in Picasso: The Artist and His Models.
