Artist Appreciation: Frida Kahlo

Frida Kahlo was a self-taught Mexican artist known for her many portraits, self-portraits, and works inspired by the nature and artifacts of her home, Mexico. Her work, primarily self-portraiture, explored identity, post-colonialism, gender, class and race in Mexican society as well as hints towards physical and psychological pain she felt in her everyday life. In this way, her work often had strong autobiographical elements mixed with realism, surrealism, and fantasy. Of her known 143 artworks, 55 are self-portraits.

Kahlo insisted that her birth date was July 7, 1910, but her birth certificate shows July 7, 1907. It is said that Kahlo claimed to have been born in 1910, the year of the outbreak of the Mexican revolution, because she wanted her life to begin together with the modern Mexico. Kahlo was fiercely proud of her heritage and sought to define a Mexican identity through her art. Because of her fierceness and passion, her work is now record-breaking. Her 1939 painting ‘Dos desnudos en el bosque (La tierre misma)’ sold for over $8 million – the highest auction price for any work by a Latin American artist at that time. During her life, Frida was loved all around the world. While in France, she was even wined and dined by Picasso, and appeared on the cover of French Vogue. This powerful connection between Kahlo and the masses has stood the test of time and is still seen in today’s modern society.

Kahlo’s poor health shaped her art. She explored her frustrations with her body through paintings: ‘The Broken Column’ is a particularly prominent artwork depicting herself impaled by the column in her famous bus accident. When she witnessed the healing power of medicine after contracting polio as a child, Kahlo began hoping to become a doctor. However, the injuries she endured from her accident forced her to abandon her studies. On September 17, 1925, Frida was involved in a serious bus accident, which left her with a broken spinal column, a broken collarbone, broken ribs, a broken pelvis, and 11 fractures in her right leg. In addition, her right foot was dislocated and crushed, and her shoulder was out of joint. Because of this, Kahlo underwent approximately 35 operations in her short life.

Kahlo’s path to painting begun with the tragic accident she suffered at age 15, a majority of which are self-portraits. She has stated that “I paint myself because I am so often alone and because I am the subject I know best.” Kahlo’s personal style has become a vibrant part of her legacy. She loved to include a symbolic monkey in her paintings; in Mexican mythology, monkeys are symbols of lust, but Kahlo portrayed them as tender and protective symbols. While many have given her the title of being a Surrealist art due to her theatrical and vibrant compositions, Kahlo refused the title, stating that “I never painted dreams. I painted my own realities.”

In 1929, Kahlo married Diego Rivera, who was an artist 20 years older than her. The marriage between Frida and Diego has since been described as the union of an elephant and a dove, with Diego being the elephant and Frida being the dove. From the beginning, the two were madly in love; they were each other’s biggest fan and supporter; however, their marriage was wrought with anger and infidelities that caused them both great deals of pain. Their issues caused them to divorce in 1939, and then remarry a year later in 1940. During their marriage, and time apart, Frida grieved privately and publicly for the children she never had because the bus accident is said to have left her uterus irreparably damaged, making pregnancies impossible to carry to term.

Frida died on July 3, 1954; while there has been a multitude of speculation regarding the cause of her death, including rumors of suicide, it has been reported to be caused by a pulmonary embolism. 4 years prior, Kahlo’s health issues nearly consumed her and she spent nine months in hospital and had several operations after being diagnosed with gangrene in her right foot in 1950. Despite her lack of mobility and overwhelming issues, once home, she continued to paint and support her political cause until they ultimately had to amputate her foot in 1953. In April 1954, Kahlo was yet again hospitalized for a rumored suicide attempt. She returned to hospital two months later with bronchial pneumonia. This still did not stop her from perusing her passions of painting and political activism. The last words written into her diary read: “I hope exit is joyful and I hope never to come back.”

Other facts:

• She was born and died in the same house.

• Her home is now a museum known as the Frida Kahlo Museum.

• Kahlo once arrived at an art show in an ambulance. It was her first solo exhibition in Mexico, but a hospital stay threatened her attendance. However, against doctors’ orders, she pulled up in an ambulance as if in a limo.

• She has several exotic pets including: a few Mexican hairless Xoloitzcuintli, a pair of spider monkeys, an Amazon parrot, a fawn, and an eagle.

• In 1937, Frida had an affair with Leon Trotsky when he was granted political asylum in Mexico and lived with Diego and Frida for the following two years. For Leon’s birthday, Frida gifted Leon with a self-portrait.

• After her death in 1954, Frida’s fame has steadily risen from simply being regarded as a marginal figure to a feminist icon.

• She won tequila challenges with hefty men.

• According to sources, Frida Kahlo was a bisexual. During their marriage, both Diego and Frida had affairs: Frida with both men and women. Diego even had an affair with Frida’s younger sister Cristina. Although in their second marriage the affairs continued, they remained married till Frida’s death.