In response to Bendigo Art Gallery’s exhibition Frida Kahlo: In her own image, academics from La Trobe University’s Visual Arts program join forces with curators from La Trobe Art Institute and Bendigo Art Gallery to present an afternoon of lectures and discussion. Explore the way that Kahlo and other modernist women used fashion, photography, and painting to construct radical new identities that challenged convention and paved the way for subsequent generations of artists.

This program is a collaboration between La Trobe's Visual Arts program, Bendigo Art Gallery and La Trobe Art Institute.

12:30pm arrival

1:00pm A very close reading of Self-portrait with thorn necklace and hummingbird by Lauren Ellis

Self-portrait with thorn necklace and hummingbird is one of Frida Kahlo’s most celebrated self-portraits, produced at the height of her artistic power in 1940, and rich in poetic allusions to religious narratives, Mexican lore, the natural world, and the artist’s eventful personal life. Through the prism of this densely layered work, Lauren will consider some of Kahlo’s key influences and sources, her artistic preoccupations and methods, and the artist’s ascent to pop culture divinity in the 21st century.

Lauren Ellis is the Curatorial Manager at Bendigo Art Gallery and is managing curator of Frida Kahlo: In her own image.

1:45pm Fashioning identity: Frida Kahlo and the gender politics of dress by Dr Caroline Wallace

Frida Kahlo has become a queer icon whose constructed image has been appropriated by contemporary artists and drag performers. To consider why this is the case, this lecture locates Kahlo amongst a number of artists in the early 20th century exploring their sexual and gender identity through fashion and performance for the camera and canvas. These artists challenged convention and created new, coded representations that continue to shape art and fashion today.

Dr Caroline Wallace is a Lecturer in Visual Arts in the Department of Languages and Culture, School of Humanities and Social Sciences at La Trobe University.

2:30pm - 3.30pm afternoon tea

3:30pm The vulnerable body: modernist women who explored their nakedness in paint by Dr Kylie Banyard

Unusual amongst Frida Kahlo's paintings are a small number of naked self-portraits, mostly focused on highly medicalised and traumatic situations. This lecture will explore some of the different ways women working during the 20th century utilised the exposing and revelatory power of the naked self-portrait painting to reclaim agency and autonomy over their own bodies.

Dr Kylie Banyard is a Senior Lecturer in Visual Arts at La Trobe University, Bendigo, she is an artist researcher who specialises in painting, textiles and photography.

4:15pm Panel discussion: fashioning the self

To conclude the afternoon, Lauren Ellis, Dr Caroline Wallace, and Dr Kylie Banyard will reflect on the key themes explored throughout the day—self-fashioning and performance, bodily autonomy and vulnerability, and Frida Kahlo’s enduring influence. The discussion will be facilitated by Dr Karen Annett, Director of the La Trobe Art Institute.

5:00pm Event concludes