Frida Kahlo

Renowned Mexican Artist and Self-Portraitist, Frida Kahlo, was born this day in 1907.  She died July 13, 1954.  Kahlo began painting following a serious bus accident that left her bed-ridden for many months.  All of her work was highly personal, often depicting the pain that she endured daily all of her life.  She painted moments of her life as if she were writing in the pages of her diary.  Kahlo, who taught herself to paint, used symbols to show pain, death and rebirth. "I never painted dreams, I painted my own reality."   Some considered her to be part of the Surrealist movement.  She was also politically active and was an outspoken feminist.   She later met and married Mexican Muralist, Diego Rivera.

Her first self-portrait, Self Portrait in a Velvet Dress, was painted in 1926.    She painted 53/55 self portraits during her career (out of the /143/200 paintings she created.)

In 1929, Kahlo married Rivera.  He was 20 years older than she, and almost a foot taller.

She painted her second self-portrait, "Time Flies," which exhibits her trademark, folkloric style.

In 1929, Kahlo married Rivera.  He was 20 years older than she, and almost a foot taller.

In 1931 Kahlo painted "Frida and Diego," from a wedding photograph.  

One of her most famous works is "Self-Portrait with Thorn Necklace and Hummingbird" from 1940,

Kahlo was born in Coyoacan, Mexico.  She grew up in "The Blue House" or "Casa Azul," which Diego Rivera donated as a museum in 1957, upon his death.

Kahlo's life and art has been the subject of many books, exhibitions and a  movie, "Frida," starring Salma Hayek and Alfred Molina (2002.)  I particularly enjoyed, Barbara Kingsolver's novel, "The Lacuna," featuring Kahlo, her life with Rivera and her affair with Trotsky.