Kahlo, Sher-Gil, Stern: Modernist Identities in the Global South

The Joburg Contemporary Art Foundation (JCAF) is pleased to present Kahlo, Sher-Gil, Stern: Modernist Identities in the Global South. The exhibition features the works of three seminal women artists, Frida Kahlo (1907–54), Amrita Sher-Gil (1913–41) and Irma Stern (1894–1966), together in South Africa and in Africa, for the first time.

Frida Kahlo was born in Coyoacán, Mexico City, Mexico to an immigrant German father, Wilhelm (Guillermo) Kahlo, and an indigenous Mexican-Spanish mother, Matilde Calderón. Amrita Sher-Gil was born in Budapest, Hungary to an aristocratic Sikh Indian father, Umrao Singh Sher-Gil, and a Hungarian-Jewish mother, Marie Antoinette Gottesmann. Irma Stern was born in Schweizer-Reneke, (then) Transvaal, South Africa to immigrant German-Jewish parents. 

Expounding on the lives and practices of these Modernist women artists—all of whom had careers that overlapped for a period of eleven years—the exhibition aims to reposition their contribution to the rewriting of art history through their pioneering artistic production. Kahlo, Sher-Gil, Stern: Modernist Identities in the Global South examines the constructions of ‘cosmopolitan’ and ‘indigenous’ identities through portraiture and self-portraiture. It also considers the time and place in which each artist produced their work, and gives some insights into their experiences, inspiration and concerns.

Visitors will experience a journey through the artists’ personal stories and archives: obtain insight into the places where the artists lived and travelled, their personal objects, films and diaries. The viewer is invited to consider and engage with one iconic artwork by each artist.

This is the third and final exhibition that concludes JCAF’s first research theme: Female Identities in the Global South.

Featured artists: Frida Kahlo (Mexico), Amrita Sher-Gil (India), Irma Stern (South Africa)

A virtual tour of the exhibition is available on the JCAF website.