'Created amid high drama': The animals that symbolise pain and passion in a Frida Kahlo self-portrait

By Arwa Haider

Untitled Self-Portrait with Thorn Necklace and Hummingbird (1940) by Frida Kahlo is displayed at an
exhibition at Tate Modern (Credit: Nickolas Muray/ Collection of Mexican Art)

A hummingbird, a spider monkey, a black cat and dragonflies – what the animal imagery in an iconic 1940 painting tells us about the artist's trauma, resilience and defiant desire.

"Fridamania" is in full force. Mexican painter Frida Kahlo's superstardom was sealed after her death (in 1954, aged 47), and she remains an unmistakably present cultural figure today. Her imagery – bold, sensuous, immediate yet fabulously intricate – inspires modern artists and activists, and adorns copious merchandise.

Kahlo's tumultuous life story – including her catastrophic injury, lifelong disability, her rocky marriage to painter Diego Rivera, and her many affairs with men and women – is evident in her powerful self-portraits. Her art helped revolutionise the genre: transforming the self-portrait from formal pose to fluid expression, revealing unapologetic beauty, raw trauma and defiant desires.

Of the 55 self-portraits she painted, a significant majority also feature animals – a lifelong love of the artist. The lead image of a new exhibition at Tate Modern,  Frida: The Making of an Icon, is an arresting 1940 masterwork, Untitled Self-Portrait with Thorn Necklace and Hummingbird.

Within this powerful painting there is a wealth of information about Kahlo and her life, and by exploring its nuanced animal imagery it's possible to unlock the artist's most intimate vulnerabilities, strengths and passions. At the same time, the portrait is a glimpse into the important role that her own beloved creatures played in her life.

“There's a folklore reference to the hummingbird – a tradition of wearing a hummingbird as a talisman, to get a lost love back” – Tobias Ostrander

The painting's dense, verdant foliage backdrop seems to emit a tropical heat; the lush green leaves contrast with the darker hues of the animals around Kahlo, though these, too, are astonishingly detailed – the cat's glinting eyes and arched back with raised fur, the monkey's look of engrossed mischief. We are up close and personal with Kahlo herself: her cheeks and lips flushed; the trickles of darkening blood seeping down her collar; her expression stoical in her suffering.

This particular painting was created amid high drama. Kahlo had just divorced Rivera (they would remarry later that year), and her long-standing affair with US photographer Nickolas Muray was also ending.

'Ready to pounce'

She is depicted as the central figure in a scene that is densely loaded with symbolism. Around her neck, Kahlo wears a hummingbird (a creature traditionally associated with freedom, as well as the Aztec god of war, seemingly lifeless here); at her right shoulder, her pet monkey (gifted to her by Rivera) toys with her thorny necklace, drawing blood; at her left looms a portentous black cat.

"The way that she stares at the viewer directly: not confrontationally, but without any resistance or reticence, is quite striking," Tate Modern curator Tobias Ostrander tells the BBC. "There's also a folklore reference to the hummingbird itself: a tradition of wearing a hummingbird as a talisman, to get a lost love back." He also points out that the hummingbird's shape echoes that of Kahlo's distinctive "monobrow": "it's bringing this dialogue between that object and her own face." 

Ostrander says, "She lived with a lot of animals, so it's her daily life. The monkey is the symbol of the suffering that she was emotionally feeling from Rivera, but then the cat is ready to pounce." Rather than a bad luck omen, this sleek feline arguably represents Kahlo's guardian animal, poised with latent power. "There's that sense of vulnerability, but also the strength, or a protector spirit next to her. 

"Her hair is braided with this beautiful purple yarn, and silver butterfly pins that she actually owned," says Ostrander. "Above them are what look like dragonfly flowers: a more metaphoric or magic realist reference in the top of the painting. They're a fantastical hybrid that couldn't exist in reality, and there's symbolism from different cultural contexts [in Indigenous Mexican culture, both dragonflies and butterflies are associated with the rebirth of the soul]. It shows the sophistication of her references."

Kahlo – pictured here in 1938 – remains an iconic figure in art history, whose influence is still felt today
(Credit: Julien Levy/ Courtesy Philadelphia Museum of Art)

These rich details also reflect Kahlo's own mestiza (mixed Indigenous and European) heritage. In pre-Hispanic cultures, the spider monkey represented irrepressible creativity, playfulness and fertility. At the same time, Kahlo's thorny attire alludes to religious martyrdom and Mexican colonial religious paintings. "For a woman artist to show herself as Christ is kind of wild at the time," Ostrander says, pointing out that she created some of her most ambitious paintings during 1939 and '40.

What Kahlo's animals mean

Kahlo's use of animals in her artworks is often regarded as "exotic" or surreal. Arguably, though, they heighten the relatability of her work. In a 1953 interview with Time magazine, Kahlo explained: "They thought I was a Surrealist, but I wasn't. I never painted dreams. I painted my own reality."

“Kahlo's house became kind of a world – it's more of a Noah's Ark situation than something sad” – Tobias Ostrander

She grew up surrounded by animals at her home of Casa Azul, on the outskirts of Mexico City. They provided companionship and solace, when she was bedridden with childhood polio (which left her permanently disabled), and at 18, when she experienced a devastating bus crash (which shattered her spine, and left her in long-term pain). In adulthood, she kept many beloved pets, including spider monkeys, birds, Mexican hairless dogs and a fawn, and Rivera built a pyramid structure to house her menagerie.

Kahlo regularly portrayed herself alongside her animals – in lush works such as Self-Portrait with Monkey (1938) and the serene Me and My Parrot (1941). Occasionally, their identities become entwined; in The Wounded Deer (1946),  Kahlo appears in the form of a woodland stag, her body brutally pierced with hunters' arrows. The word "carma" (karma) is at the base of the scene: the fundamental notion of suffering as fate (Kahlo once declared that "pain, pleasure and death are no more than a process for existence".

Self-Portrait with Loose Hair (1946) is one of 55 self-portraits painted by the artist during her lifetime
(Credit: Private collection)

In an essay for the exhibition, Beatriz Garcia-Velasco notes that Kahlo's depicted wounds evoke "the style of a painting of Saint Sebastian, alluding to her lifelong disability and suffering but finding strength and healing in her connection with nature."

As with all Kahlo's work, her animals invite multilayered interpretations. Saatchi Art's Megan Wright observed that Kaklo regarded her pets as "soulful and insightful creatures" but also suggested that "Kahlo's fluid sexuality... resonated with that of her pet monkeys due to their rambunctious and unapologetically sexual nature, which might also explain why she had depicted them as her equals." A different perspective appears in the 2017 children's book Frida Kahlo and Her Animalitos by Monica Brown, which shows Kahlo's pets as empowering friends.

Surrogate children or sites of affection

Often, it's argued that Kahlo's animals represented the children she longed for. Certainly, her artworks deal candidly with trauma including child loss, but this also seems like an over-familiar assumption around a childless woman.

In Kahlo's hypnotic 1949 painting The Love Embrace of the Universe, The Earth (Mexico), Myself, Diego, and Señor Xólotl, it's actually her husband who appears as a man-baby, nakedly cradled in Kahlo's arms. Her splendidly named dog Señor Xólotl – Xólotl is a figure from Aztec mythology – is a tender, protective presence at her feet.

"Kahlo had lots of animals that were sites of affection for her," says Ostrander. "She was very confined to her house, and so her house became kind of a world – it's more of a Noah's Ark situation than something sad. I don't want to simplify that they're like children, but they sometimes stood in for children or a representation of youth around her."

Our appreciation and understanding of Kahlo continually expands, and her bond to animals and nature feels timeless. She would face intense challenges throughout her life; in 1953, when her right leg was amputated following a bout of severe gangrene, she wrote in her diary: "Feet, what do I need them for if I have wings to fly?". 

Kahlo's most heartbroken self-portraits ultimately resound with vivacity. As she declared: "I am not sick. I am broken. But I am happy to be alive as long as I can paint."

Frida: the Making of an Icon is at Tate Modern London until 3 January 2027.

First published at BBC News, June 26, 2026

'Major discovery': France's National Library brings forgotten Mozart manuscript back to life

By FRANCE 24

A long-forgotten manuscript by composer Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart will be brought to life this weekend in Paris. The newly rediscovered work – composed in 1778 when the Austrian prodigy was just 22 – will be performed in public for the first time ever at France's National Library. 

A composition notebook by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart containing seven pieces for harp and flute is displayed at
the National Library of France (BnF) in Paris on June 15, 2026. © Kenzo Tribouillard, AFP

Musicians this weekend will for the first time publicly interpret music for flute and harp that Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart wrote as a 22-year-old while teaching an aristocratic French student.

The unprecedented concert on Sunday at France’s National Library (BnF), comes after what it has called a "major discovery".

Francois-Pierre Goy, a curator in the library's music department, stumbled across the treasure as he examined a pile of anonymous manuscripts he wanted to get through before retirement.

"I never imagined what I was about to find," he told AFP.

The 44-page notebook includes a dozen daily exercises the Austrian prodigy gave Marie-Louise-Philippine de Bonnieres de Guines from May to July 1778, as well as seven pieces for flute and harp, he said.

She was an excellent harpist and the daughter of the Duke of Guines, himself a renowned flautist.

"It just so happened that I had been looking at some of Mozart's teaching material a few weeks earlier," Goy said.

Soon he noticed similarities – including "the treble clefs that are quite rounded and tilted slightly forward", and bass clefs drawn in the opposite direction from how they usually are in France, he added.

"Could it be him?" Goy said he thought to himself.

Comparisons with Mozart's other handwritten works, the French paper used, and stamps on the notebook identical to those on a French copy of Mozart's "Concerto for Flute and Harp" that the Duke of Guines had commissioned all seemed to indicate he was right.

Armin Brinzing, director of the Austria-based Mozarteum Foundation, authenticated the document in April.

The manuscript "is part of two bundles of music that were confiscated from the home of the Duke of Guines in 1794" during the French Revolution, and eventually ended up at the BnF, according to the library.

Mozart died in 1791 aged 35.

Discoveries like this "for such a famous composer are almost unheard of", said Mathias Auclair, director of the BnF's music department.

Several Mozart compositions have been rediscovered in recent years.

In one case, in 2012, someone found a Mozart piano piece composed when he was 11 in an Austrian attic.

For harpists and flautists, who have "very little repertoire" available to them, the discovery at the BnF is a wonderful surprise, he said.

BnF president Gilles Pecout said the new music sheets shed light on Mozart as a young teacher and documented his last stay in Paris in 1778 – on which there is scant information.

(FRANCE 24 with AFP) - June 19, 2026

Remembering the car that carried Australia

Prime Minister Ben Chifley at the launch of the first Holden car in 1948.

By Helen Musa

Public reaction to Australia’s first locally made car in 1948 was extraordinary. Now an aptly titled exhibition at the National Archives, Rear Vision: the Holden Collection, brings to life the memories and stories of GMH, reports HELEN MUSA. 

“We love football, meat pies, kangaroos and Holden cars,” went the famous advertising jingle from the 1970s.

Small matter that it was a rip-off from the American jingle, “Baseball, hot dogs, apple pie and Chevrolet”, it took off here among a populace who probably didn’t know or care that the same company – General Motors – owned both Holden and Chevrolet.

Historically, public reaction to Australia’s first locally made car in 1948 was extraordinary. Around 18,000 people reportedly signed up to buy the car sight unseen and at the height of Holden’s popularity, the EH Holden became the fastest-selling Australian car ever, with more than 250,000 sold in 18 months.

Now an aptly titled exhibition at the National Archives of Australia, Rear Vision: the Holden Collection, brings to life the memories and stories of General Motors Holden.

As visitors walk in the door of the archives, they will be confronted by a large 48-215 (FX) Holden, the property of Canberra Classic Holden Club members June and Tony Pryce, who painstakingly restored it in original duck-egg blue tones sourced from period colours.

NAA curator Anna Edmundson with a Holden 48-215 (FX). The oldest Holden registered in the ACT, it was assembled in Sydney in September 1949. June and Tony Pryce bought it in 1990 and painstakingly restored it in original duck-egg blue tones sourced from period colours. Photo: Peter Hislop

When I catch up with NAA curator Anna Edmundson, I learn that the show, developed originally by the State Library of South Australia with the University of Adelaide, has been augmented in Canberra with patent records, advertising, industrial relations files and material relating to women workers’ campaigns for equal pay, all from the Archives’ collection.

Bookended by the first and last engines Holden produced – yes, the actual engines – Rear Vision traces the company’s journey from a 19th century Adelaide saddlery, through military production during World War II, the creation of Australia’s own car and finally the company’s closure in 2017.

Inside the show are Monaro transmission components, custom paint and trim samples, fibreglass moulds, glasswork, Lego model cars and the original bronze lion statue from the entrance to the Elizabeth assembly plant.

The launch of the 500,000th Holden, 1958 .

And for those feeling nostalgic, there will even be photo opportunities inviting visitors to place themselves back into the “good old days” behind the wheel of a cardboard FX.

I find that although American-owned, Holden quickly became synonymous with Australian nationalism and indeed the names “Boomerang” and “Woomera” were touted for the original car, though they settled on the more commonplace 48-215, quickly known as the FX and later superseded by the famous FJ.

Later models, however, did adopt names drawn from Aboriginal languages: Torana meaning “to fly”, Monaro meaning “high plains” and Camira meaning “wind”.

The exhibition explores Holden’s place in Australian cultural memory.

“We’ve all got a picture in our minds of grandma near a Holden with a Hills Hoist in the background,” Edmundson says.

There is material relating to artist Albert Namatjira, who spent his first tax return on a green Holden truck, and to Jimmy Barnes, who worked at the Elizabeth plant in SA after migrating from Glasgow.

Barnes would go on to perform Shutting Down Our Town, written by Troy Cassar-Daley, at a farewell party for retrenched workers when the Elizabeth factory closed in October 2017.

Holden as an early saddlery in Adelaide… Holden & Frost, Grenfell Street, 1907. Photo: Ernest Gall

The story began in 1856 when James Alexander Holden, a talented inventor as Edmundson points out, established a saddlery business in Adelaide that expanded into carriage trim, leather seats and carriage bodies before moving into early car-body production mounted on to imported Chevrolet chassis and engines. Little known is that in the 1920s Holden also supplied bodies for Melbourne’s W-Class trams.

When it merged with General Motors in 1931, the company retained enough autonomy to develop vehicles adapted to Australian conditions.

The exhibition argues that Holden’s real industrial transformation came during World War II when it shifted into military manufacturing, producing aircraft engines, anti-tank guns, artillery shells, bombs and military equipment.

Among the wartime objects on show is the Gipsy Major engine that powered Tiger Moth aircraft, the first Australian-built Holden engine, contrasted with the company’s final 2017 vehicle, the VF Commodore SS-V Redline, later purchased for $750,000 by a former Holden employee.

Women workers during World War II cleaning dust from bomber tanks, 1943. Photographer: Darian Smith

Pride of place is also given to the Beaufort Bomber program, especially photographs showing the women working on the bomber production.

Edmundson says that around 35 per cent of people working on the Beaufort were women, though they had to strike to demand equal pay with men after intervention by the Women’s Employment Board. 

The exhibition also stresses the multicultural make-up of the workforce, while another section examines the devastation wrought on trades communities after the company’s collapse.

Ultimately, Edmundson says, Rear Visions is less about the physicality of the car than the stories of people.

Rear Vision: the Holden Collection, National Archives of Australia, daily, until October 11. Free.

First published at Canberra City News, June 17, 2026

Beatles great Sir Paul McCartney extends chart record

Sir Paul McCartney has secured his 24th number one album in the UK with The Boys of Dungeon Lane.
(EPA PHOTO)

Sir Paul McCartney has extended his record as the most successful albums act of all time.

The 83-year-old icon has topped the UK charts once again with The Boys of Dungeon Lane, which has become the 24th number one album of his storied career.

“Paul McCartney securing his 24th number one album in the UK is an incredible achievement, and his place as the most successful albums artist in the history of the Official Charts is truly deserved,” Official Charts Company co-managing directors Becca Monahan and Chris Austin said.

“Across seven decades, Paul’s music has found new generations of fans, and this latest milestone is a testament to his extraordinary career.

“As we near the 70th anniversary of the Official Albums Chart on 22nd July, Paul’s continued success highlights his profound and sustained impact across the lifetime of the chart.

“Congratulations to Paul on another historic milestone.”

McCartney has achieved 15 number one LPs as a member of the Beatles, two with the band Wings, six with his solo projects and one alongside Linda McCartney, his first wife, who passed away in April 1998, aged 56.

The Boys of Dungeon Lane has also topped the Official Vinyl Albums Chart and the Official Record Store Chart, meaning it’s sold the most copies in independent UK record shops in the past week.

Meanwhile, McCartney recently confessed to being amazed by the Beatles’ enduring popularity and his solo success.

“It is phenomenal, it is really phenomenal,” McCartney said, appearing on TikTok live.

“When we started out, we were just kids, and rock and roll was just really coming in, and we thought, ‘if we’re lucky, we’ve got a couple of years’ – that’s how long people normally lasted. They couldn’t really sustain much more after that.

“We expected maybe five years max, and then that became 10, and we were kind of still going and the scene’s still there.

“Then it became 20, then 30, and now it’s right up there. It’s great, it is a lovely feeling.”

Published at Australian Associated Press via City News, June 6, 2026

Debut album from British-Indonesian pianist George Harliono - June 1, 2026

Tchaikovsky Piano Concerto No 1 in B flat minor

Rachmaninov Piano Concerto No 2 in C minor

Brahms

British Indonesian pianist George Harliono was invited to make his first one hour long, solo recital at the age of nine and since then has performed in numerous locations both in the UK, USA, Europe and Asia, appearing at venues such as Wigmore Hall, The Berlin Philharmonie Kammermusiksaal, The Royal Albert Hall and Chicago Symphony Centre. In 2023, he was awarded the Silver Medal at the XVII International Tchaikovsky Competition.

In 2013 he was invited to record Beethoven’s Piano Sonata Op.2 No.1 at the Southbank Centre in London. In 2016 his performance of Tchaikovsky Piano Concerto No.1 at the Great Hall of The Moscow Conservatory was broadcast live on Russian national TV and streamed live on Medici TV.

Since his concerto debut at the age of 12 he has been a regular performer with orchestras including the Moscow State Symphony Orchestra, The Mariinsky Orchestra, Tatarstan National Symphony Orchestra, New Millennium Orchestra of Chicago, Frankfurter Opern- und Museumsorchester, Tyumen Philharmonic Orchestra, Tchaikovsky Symphony Orchestra, Sendai Philharmonic Orchestra and Tokyo Philharmonic Orchestra. George also regularly performs alongside eminent artists such as Denis Matsuev and Lang Lang. He has worked with many renowned conductors including Valery Gergiev, Alexander Sladkovsky, Alexander Rudin, Evgeny Shestakov, Ainars Rubikis, Anton Lubchenko, Ken Takaseki, Kazumasa Watanabe, Ivan Nikiforchin, Haoran Li and Sebastian Weigle.

George has been awarded prizes in numerous competitions throughout the world including The Grand Piano Competition in Moscow, Sendai International Music Competition, Royal Overseas League Music Competition in London, Gina Bachauer Piano Competition in Utah, Concourse International de Lagny-sur-Marne in Paris and Dinu Lipatti Piano Competition in Bucharest.

Most recently he performed Beethoven Piano Concerto no. 5 at Zaryadye Concert Hall in Moscow and Liszt Piano Concerto no 1 at the Frankfurt Alte Oper. He was also invited to perform a recital as part of the Duszniki-Zdrój International Chopin Piano Festival, one of the oldest and most important classical music festivals in Poland.

He currently studies with Professor Pascal Nemirovski (International Chair in Piano, Royal Birmingham Conservatoire), following earlier studies with Vanessa Latarche and William Fong. He has also taken masterclasses with Dmitri Bashkirov, Vladimir Ashkenazy, and Vladimir Ovchinnikov among others. George also works closely with conductor Alexander Sladkovsky who has taken a personal interest in his development as an artist.

“George Harliono is very talented, he’s got a phenomenal career ahead of him.” Says the acclaimed Russian pianist Denis Matsuev.

He graduated in 2021 with a BMUS Degree at the Royal College of Music. He auditioned at 15 years old and was accepted with a full scholarship. He was one of the youngest students to be accepted onto this course.

In 2018 he was shortlisted for an award in the ‘Sound of Classical Poll’ at the Classic BRIT Awards in London, which promotes the best emerging artists and ones-to-watch in classical music. In 2022 George was awarded ‘Best Guest Artist’ at the ‘440 Hz’ awards (of which Yury Termirkanov was President) for his performance of Beethoven Piano Concerto no. 5 at Zaryadye Hall in Moscow with Musica Viva Orchestra conducted by Alexander Rudin.

In 2024, George embarked on a recital tour across China. He also performed at some of the most prestigious venues in Asia, including Suntory Hall (Tokyo), Seoul Arts Center, Victoria Concert Hall (Singapore) and Taiwan National Concert Hall. In August, George had the honor of performing for the President of Indonesia, Prabowo Subianto, and in November, he made his debut recording of Tchaikovsky’s Piano Concerto No. 1 and Rachmaninoff’s Piano Concerto No. 2 with the Tokyo Philharmonic Orchestra. 

Beyond his performances, George is also deeply committed to education and enjoys sharing his insights with aspiring musicians. He has given masterclasses at many institutions including Universitas Pelita Harapan, Tainan National University, National Tsing Hua University, Taipei University of the Arts, the University of the Philippines, and the University of Santo Tomas.

George is grateful for the support he receives from The Luxaviation Group.

Album release date: June 1, 2026

Reprinted from the George Harliono website: georgeharliono.com