Lecture | Phantom Limbs: Frida Kahlo, Disability, and Art Sunday, October 19, 2025 2 p.m.-3 p.m.
Nickolas Muray, Frida, New York, 1946, printed 2024, inkjet print, the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, gift of Nickolas Muray Photo Archives. © Nickolas Muray Photo Archives
Gannit Ankori
October 19, 2025
The annual Armando Garza-Sada Sr. Lecture complements the forthcoming exhibition Frida: The Making of an Icon, which opens in January.
Frida Kahlo was a pioneer in fashioning the disabled body. Beginning in early childhood, Khalo (1907–1954) developed a profound understanding of the self-empowering role that clothes, accessories, and art-making played in reflecting and constructing her complex identity. Through art and fashion, she concealed and revealed both her disabilities and exceptional abilities.
Art historian and curator Gannit Ankori discusses Kahlo’s experiences with disability, detailing how the artist’s life and work affirm an alternative way of being.
About the Speaker
Gannit Ankori, the Henry and Lois Foster Director and Chief Curator of the Rose Art Museum at Brandeis University, is renowned for her scholarship on Frida Kahlo. Ankori’s books include Frida Kahlo/Critical Lives; and Imaging Her Selves: Frida Kahlo’s Poetics of Identity and Fragmentation. In collaboration with Indigenous Mexican fashion curator and scholar Circe Henestrosa, Ankori has been involved in projects such as the exhibition Frida Kahlo: POSE.
Plan Your Visit
- This program is included with Museum admission.
- The lecture takes place in Brown Auditorium Theater on the Lower Level of the Law Building. Seating is available on a first-come, first-served basis. The exhibition is located on Level 2 of the Law Building.
- Parking Information | Museum Hours | MFAH Campus Map
This lecture is made possible by the Armando Garza-Sada Sr. Endowment for the Arts.
“Frida: The Making of an Icon” is organized by the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston.
Lead Global Supporter:
Major support is provided by:
Jerold B. Katz Foundation
Generous support is provided by:
Linnet Deily
Nancy Pollok Guinee
The Radoff Family
Cathy and Alex López Negrete
Silvia Salle and Peter T. Wood
Yolanda and Bill Knull
Official Promotional Partner:
All Learning and Interpretation programs at the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, receive generous support from H-E-B; Institute of Museum and Library Services; Sempra Foundation; the Brown Foundation, Inc.; the Houston Livestock Show and Rodeo; the Joe Barnhart Foundation; the Cockrell Family Fund; the CFP Foundation; Macey and Harry Reasoner; the Texas Commission on the Arts; and the Junior League of Houston, Inc.
Endowment funds are provided by the Louise Jarrett Moran Bequest; Caroline Wiess Law; Windgate Foundation; the William Randolph Hearst Foundation; Cyvia and Melvyn Wolff; the National Endowment for the Humanities; the Fondren Foundation; BMC Software, Inc.; the Wallace Foundation; the Neal Myers and Ken Black Children’s Art Fund; the Eleanor and Frank Freed Foundation; Medha and Shashank Karve; Virginia and Ira Jackson; Jesse H. Jones II; the CFP Foundation; the Favrot Fund; gifts in memory of John Wynne; Neiman Marcus Youth Arts Education; gifts in memory of Peter Lotz; and gifts in honor of Beth Schneider.