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Frida Kahlo

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Biography

Frida Kahlo (Coyoacán, Mexico 1907 - idem 1954)

Frida Kahlo was a Mexican painter known for her Surrealist-inspired self-portraits and also for her photographs. Christened Magdalena Carmen Frida Kahlo y Calderón, she was born in the village of Coyoacán, Mexico, on July 6, 1907. The daughter of a German father and a Mexican mother, she had poor health from an early age. At six, she contracted polio, which left her with an after-effect in one foot. At 18, she suffered a serious bus accident that kept her in hospital for a long period.

Although depressed and unable to walk, Frida began painting her own image, with a mirror hung in front of her and an easel adapted so that she could paint lying down. She used to say: "Feet, what do I need them for if I have wings to fly?" Her first painting was "Self-Portrait in a Velvet Dress", dedicated to Alejandro Gómez Arias, her former fiancé.

Once recovered, Frida studied drawing and modeling at the National Preparatory School in Mexico City. In 1928, she joined the Mexican Communist Party, where she met Diego Rivera, an important painter of the Mexican Muralist movement.

Marriage and Travels

In 1929, at the age of 22, Frida Kahlo married Diego Rivera, and they went to live in the "Casa Azul" (Blue House), where Frida was born. In 1930, Frida became pregnant but suffered a miscarriage. That same year, she went with her husband to the United States, where he was holding exhibitions. They lived in Detroit, San Francisco and New York. During this period, she suffered a second miscarriage. She devoted herself to painting and produced a large number of self-portraits - of Surrealist inspiration, although she denied it, saying: "I never painted dreams. I painted my own reality". She stayed in the United States until 1934.

Return to Mexico

In 1934, the couple returned to Mexico. Frida suffered another miscarriage. At this time, the toes of her right foot were amputated. In 1935, Frida and Rivera separated. Rivera had an affair with Frida's sister, Cristina. Soon afterwards, Frida and Rivera lived together again. In 1936, Frida underwent another operation on her foot and suffered severe back pain. Although weakened, she kept on painting.

In 1937, Frida met Leon Trotsky, who took refuge in her house in Coyoacán, Mexico, together with his wife Natalia Sedova. In 1939, Frida and Rivera divorced (they would remarry in 1940). Frida declared: "Diego, there have been two great accidents in my life: the bus and you. You were by far the worst". In 1938, Frida held her first solo exhibition in New York and, in 1939, exhibited in Paris. At this time, she came into contact with Pablo Picasso and Wassily Kandinsky. The Louvre acquired one of her self-portraits.

Despite undergoing numerous operations and wearing a plaster corset as a result of the accident, Frida never stopped painting. Her work was influenced by Mexican Indigenous art. She painted still lifes and imaginary scenes. She used strong, vivid colors, mainly exploring self-portraits. Frida Kahlo was also passionate about photography, a habit she inherited from her father and her maternal grandfather, both professional photographers.

Frida Kahlo taught art at the newly founded National School of Painting and Sculpture in Mexico City. She was an advocate of women's rights and became a symbol of feminism. In August 1953, Frida had a leg amputated at the knee because of gangrene. Amid this suffering, Frida wrote in her diary: "They amputated my leg six months ago, they have given me centuries of torture and at moments I almost lost my reason. I keep on wanting to kill myself".

Depressed, she spent the last years of her life in the Casa Azul, in Mexico, which in 1958 became a museum in tribute to the painter.

Frida Kahlo died in Coyoacán, Mexico, on July 13, 1954.