Casa Azul

Canyonhaus is headed south of the border! Later this week I’m headed to Mexico City for some rest, relaxation, and inspiration. At the top of my list of attractions is Casa Azul, the longtime home of painter Frida Kahlo, now functioning as one of the most popular museums in Mexico City. After coming across Artsy’s write up of the destination, I knew perusing the grounds of this legendary home was a must for my trip.

With a whimsical garden of native Mexican plants still thriving six decades after Frida’s death, you are able to walk the same winding paths and flower beds that Kahlo traversed during her life at Casa Azul. Read the full article from Artsy below.

Friday Kahlo in her garden. Courtesy of Museo Frida Kahlo.

In a portrait taken in 1940, Frida Kahlo leans casually on a stone sculpture surrounded by lush greenery. She wears a crown of deep-pink bougainvillea blossoms—just one of countless plants that filled her abundant garden at Casa Azul, the painter’s longtime home.

Today, 80 years later, Kahlo’s home and gardens remain open as a museum. The bougainvillea still stand tall, too, their thorny vines winding around the paths and flower beds that Kahlo traversed during her life. The painter spent countless hours in her garden, a source of respite and artistic inspiration.

For Humberto Spíndola, Casa Azul’s head gardener, maintaining the plants that Kahlo and her husband, Diego Rivera, nurtured during their lives is essential to preserving their legacy. “Not only do the garden and its plants show up in [Kahlo’s] paintings and photographs taken of her, but she also adorned herself with them,” he explained. “We are trying to cultivate as many plants that played a role in her life and art as we can.”