Elliott King to Deliver Lecture at the Virginia Museum of the Fine Arts The professor of art history will host a talk that reconsiders artist Frida Kahlo’s relationship with surrealism.

By Brian Laubscher
July 30, 2025

Elliott King, professor of art history at Washington and Lee University, will deliver a lecture on Mexican artist Frida Kahlo at the Virginia Museum for the Fine Arts (VMFA) at 6:30 p.m. on Thursday, Aug. 14, at the Leslie Cheek Theater in Richmond, Virginia.

King’s lecture, titled “A Ribbon Around a Bomb: Frida Kahlo’s Surrealist Encounter,” will be held in conjunction with the VMFA exhibit “Frida: Beyond the Myth,” which runs through Sept. 28, 2025. His talk will reconsider Kahlo’s relationship with surrealism, suggesting that despite refusing the label, her fearless exploration of identity, pain and revolution embodied the true spirit of surrealist revolt. Admission to the talk is $8 and $5 for VMFA members. King’s discussion will also be available for free on the VMFA livestream.

King, who specializes in surrealist art and thought, is a founding board member of the International Society for the Study of Surrealism and currently serves as the association’s vice president. He is the author of two books, “Dalí, Surrealism and Cinema” and “Radical Dreams: Surrealism, Counterculture, Resistance.” The latter was co-edited with Abigail Susik and shortlisted for the Modernist Studies Association’s Edition, Anthology, or Essay Collection Book Prize for 2023.

King has been a member of the W&L faculty since 2012. He holds a Bachelor of Arts in art history from the University of Denver, a Master of Arts in history of art from the Courtauld Institute of Art (U.K.) and a Ph.D. in art history and theory from the University of Essex (U.K.).

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