Frida Kahlo

    

    Frida was born July 6, 1907 to Guillermo Kahlo (born Carl Wilhelm Kahlo) and Matilde Calderón y González. Guillermo was German born and immigrated to Mexico in 1891 at the request of his father. After his first wife’s death he married Matilde who was primarily of indigenous descent as well as Spanish. Frida was born at their home, La Casa Azul (the blue house). 

    In 1910 when Frida was 3 years old the Mexican Revolution began, Frida would later claim to have been born in 1910 so that she would be directly associated with the revolution. Frida would later recount times of when her mother would usher her and her siblings back indoors after hearing explosions. At the age of 6 Frida got polio which left her with one leg thinner than the other. She would disguise this in life by wearing long skirts and extra socks.

    In 1922, she was enrolled in a premier school known as the Escuela Nacional Preparatoria. She was studying biology with the hopes of someday becoming a doctor. Frida became involved with a group or a gang named the Cachuchas. It was a group of young people who had similar political views as she did. During this time Frida began dating the leader, Alejandro Gomez Arias. On September 17, 1925 Frida’s life would forever be changed; she and Alejandro were on their way home from school when they boarded a crowded bus. The bus attempted to pass an eclectic street car which crashed into the side of the bus, dragging it for a number of feet. Many passengers died instantly and others died later from their injuries. Alejandro had minor injuries but upon looking around saw that Frida had not been so lucky. Frida had been impaled through her pelvis by a handrail. Alejandro and others removed the handrail at the sight of the accident causing Frida immense and unimaginable pain. The injuries were; a punctured abdomen and uterus, her spine had been broken in 3 places, her shoulder dislocated, her collarbone broken, her polio-afflicted leg was fractured and her foot was dislocated and mangled. Alejandro later would say, “Something strange had happened. Frida was totally nude. The collision had unfastened her clothes. Someone in the bus, probably a house painter, had been carrying a packet of powdered gold. This package broke and the gold fell all over the bleeding body of Frida. When people saw her, they cried, ‘La bailarina, la bailarina!’ With the gold on her red, bloody body, they thought she was a dancer.” Frida was only 18 and confined to her bed for the next few months, followed by two solid years of bed rest.

    It was during her recovery that she began to paint. Her mother had an easel made so she could paint from her bed and her father gave her his brushes and oil paints. Frida began to paint self-portraits, one of her first being Self Portrait in a Velvet Dress. Out of her 143 paintings, 55 are self-portraits. She once said, “I paint myself because I am often alone and I am the subject I know best.”  Kahlo was influenced by indigenous Mexican culture, she did so by using bright colors and dramatic symbolism. Christian and Jewish themes are also depicted in her art. 

    In 1929 Frida married Diego Rivera, who she had met when she was at the Escuela Nacional Preparatoria. Diego had been painting a mural there when she was a student and they reconnected in 1928. He was 20 years her senior and already well known for his communist views and for his art. He was someone who Kahlo already admired. Diego had approached Kahlo because he thought she was talented and that her art was uniquely Mexican. They were nicknamed “the Elephant and the Dove” by either her mother or her father.* Most likely it was her mother who created the nickname as it was well known that she strongly opposed the marriage. They had a rocky and explosive relationship with both of them often having affairs. It began when Diego said that monogamy was out of the question for him as he believed that sexual intercourse was essential and should be uncomplicated. Kahlo was openly bisexual and would have affairs with both men and women, even seducing some of the women her husband was sleeping with. Diego tolerated the affairs with women but was infuriated when Frida had affairs with other men. Frida was especially  upset when she discovered her sister, Cristina, had been having an affair with Diego. Cristina’s husband had recently left her and she began spending time at Frida’s home and modeling for Diego’s art. Many believe Diego seduced Cristina and that he used Frida’s frail health as an excuse to do so. Not only was Frida heartbroken by this betrayal but she also suffered a miscarriage in 1934 which deeply hurt her. Although Frida and Diego were going through tough times in their marriage, they joined together to help fellow communist, Leon Trotsky when he fled the Soviet Union. Frida and Leon soon began an affair. When Leon was assassinated, Frida and Diego were both considered suspects. Diego and Frida had divorced in 1939 but were remarried 1 year later in 1940 when they were living in San Francisco. 

    Frida sold her first painting in the Summer of 1938 to actor and art collector, Edward G. Robinson. In 1939 she was invited to France; she was invited by Surrealist painter, Andre Breton. Her paintings were featured in Paris and The Louvre bought one of her paintings, The Frame. This was the first work by a 20th century Mexican artist ever purchased by the museum. Frida was a part of the International Exhibition of Surrealism in 1940. On display she had two of her paintings, The Two Fridas and The Wounded Table. Andrew considered her to be a surrealist, a label that Frida at first rejected as she claimed to be painting her reality. Later in 1945 was asked by Don Jose Domingo Lavin to read a book, Moses and Monotheism by Sigmund Freud and to paint her understanding of it. This is when she painted Moses, which won 2nd prize at the annual art exhibition at the Palacio de Belles Artes. 

    It wasn’t until 1953 that Frida had her first solo exhibition. Frida’s health was already deteriorating, she arrived in an ambulance and had a four-poster bed set up in the gallery for her. She passed away on July 13, 1954. She wrote in her journal that day, “I hope the exit is joyful-and I hope to never return-Frida”. The official cause of death was a pulmonary embolism, although some suspected that she died from an intentional overdose although an autopsy was never performed. Frida had been ill before her death and even had her right leg amputated at the knee to stop the spread of gangrene. She had also been sick with bronchopneumonia. Diego said after her death that the day she died was the most tragic day of his life and that he had realized the most wonderful part of his life was the love he had had for her.

    Her ashes are on display in a pre-Columbian urn at La Casa Azul, which has been converted into a museum that houses a number of her works and personal relics. When Frida died she was mainly known to be Diego Rivera’s exotic wife, but in the 1970s with the rise of the feminism movement many began to rediscover her art. Frida left behind a legacy filled with beautiful and inspiring works. She never shied from expressing her feelings in her art even if that made others uncomfortable, she was true to herself.

What do you think about Frida Kahlo’s life, legacy and art? Please leave a comment below. 

 

Sources: 

https://www.frida-kahlo-foundation.org/ 

https://www.biography.com/news/frida-kahlo-bus-accident 

https://www.fridakahlo.org/ 

https://www.smithsonianmag.com/arts-culture/frida-kahlo-70745811/ 

https://www.riseart.com/guide/2291/art-world-news-frida-kahlo-and-diego-rivera-romance-and-heartbreak