10 questions · Society & Everyday
Frida Kahlo is born in 1907 in the "Blue House" in Coyoacán near Mexico City: the house that remains her refuge for the rest of her life. As a child she contracts polio, but the true turning point comes at 18: a road accident shatters her pelvis and spine. For months she lies in bed in a plaster cast and begins to paint. A mirror is fixed above her bed so she can capture the only subject available to her: herself. Thus the hallmark of her work is born. About half her paintings are self-portraits, often with her joined eyebrows, in vivid colours and full of symbols from Mexican folk art. Kahlo paints unflinchingly what she lives through: physical pain, miscarriages, broken hearts. "I paint myself because I am so often alone and because I am the subject I know best," she said. In 1929 she marries the famous muralist Diego Rivera: a passionate, stormy union of separations, affairs on both sides and a remarriage. Both are committed communists; for a time the exiled Leon Trotsky even comes and goes at the Blue House. Famous is her devotion to Mexico and its indigenous culture, which she celebrates in dress, jewellery and painting. In her lifetime Kahlo stands in her husband's shadow; her first major solo exhibition in Mexico takes place only in 1953, shortly before her death, which she attends lying in a bed carried into the gallery. In 1954 she dies aged just 47. Only decades later does she become a global icon, as an exceptional artist, a feminist symbol and a woman who turned her pain into unforgettable images.
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Mexico
She was born in the "Blue House" (Casa Azul) in Coyoacán, now a museum.
💡 Did you know? Kahlo deliberately embodied Mexican culture: colourful traditional dress, folk art and indigenous roots shaped her image and her paintings.
self-portraits
About half of her roughly 150 paintings depict herself.
💡 Did you know? "I paint myself because I am the subject I know best," she said.
a serious road accident
During her long recovery in a plaster cast she began to paint.
💡 Did you know? At 18 an iron rod pierced Kahlo's pelvis in a bus crash: she suffered pain and operations for the rest of her life.
painting in bed using a mirror
Confined to bed, Kahlo began to paint; a mirror was fixed above her bed so she could make herself the subject.
💡 Did you know? The mirror made her her own constant model.
Diego Rivera
The passionate marriage was marked by separations, affairs and a remarriage.
💡 Did you know? Her marriage to the muralist Diego Rivera was passionate and stormy: the two divorced and married again.
surrealism / folk symbolism
She herself denied being a surrealist: "I never painted dreams. I painted my own reality."
💡 Did you know? Kahlo rejected the label „Surrealism“: „I never paint dreams, I paint my own reality.“
communism
Kahlo and Rivera were committed communists; for a time they hosted Leon Trotsky, exiled from the Soviet Union.
💡 Did you know? For a time the exiled revolutionary Leon Trotsky lived at her Blue House.
47 years old
She attended her first major solo show in Mexico in 1953 lying in a bed carried into the gallery.
💡 Did you know? Kahlo was only 47; shortly before her death she had her first big solo show in Mexico and had herself carried there in her bed.
Foto: Guillermo Kahlo · Public domain · Wikimedia Commons
Frida Kahlo
Frida Kahlo (1907 to 1954) was a Mexican painter, famous for her vivid, often painful self-portraits.
💡 Did you know? Of her some 150 pictures, over 50 are self-portraits: „I paint myself because I am so often alone and because I am the subject I know best.“
1907
Born: 6 July 1907 in Coyoacán, Mexico
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