Frida Kahlo

A painter who used her emotions to make incredible displays of artwork, Frida Kahlo was a strong Mexican independent woman, a feminist who wasn’t afraid to make a statement.  She was born on January 6th, 1907 in Cocoyán Mexico City.

During her life, Kahlo produced almost 200 paintings. An experience that gave her the creativity to paint was an accident at the age of eighteen, which fractured her spine and shattered her leg. As a child she also had polio; as an adult, she experienced multiple miscarriages with her marriage to Diego Rivera, another Mexican painter.

Even though her body was in pain and she was not healthy, she used all of her emotions from these circumstances and created beautiful paintings. The pain Kahlo experienced in her life was often, ironically, her source of inspiration. 

Mexican novelist Carlos Fuentes remarked on Frida’s continuing relevancy for our world today: “Frida found a way of painting pain – of permitting us to see the pain and in so doing, reflecting the pain of the world. … She is a figure that represents the conquest of adversity, that represents how – against hell and high water – a person is able to make their life and reinvent themselves and make that life be personally fulfilling… Frida Kahlo in that sense is a symbol of hope, of power, of empowerment, for a variety of sectors of our population who are undergoing adverse conditions.”

Kahlo made a painting called The Broken Column (1944) to represent her suffering after her accident. The painting depicts Kahlo standing, the center of her body providing a window to view her broken spine. She wears a brace similar to one she wore in real life to keep her body from collapsing. Another one of her famous artworks is called The Two Fridas (1939), representing how there was the version of Kahlo that her husband wanted and the version she was and wanted to be. 

Kahlo created mostly self-portraits. In many of her paintings, Kahlo portrayed her feelings about her marriage and how people wanted her to look versus the way she wanted to look. Within her lifetime she did not sell a lot of paintings but had them on display at museums and art galleries. She died of a pulmonary embolism on July 13th, 1954, at the age of 47. During her life, she was well-known even past the Mexican borders and after her death, her works became more known throughout the world. 

“I am my own muse. I am the subject I know best. The subject I want to better.”  -Frida Kahlo

References

Frida Kahlo and her paintings. (n.d.). Frida Kahlo.org. Retrieved September 10, 2021, from https://www.fridakahlo.org/.

Tuchman, P. (2002, November). Frida Kahlo. Smithsonian Magazine. Retrieved September 10, 2021, from https://www.smithsonianmag.com/arts-culture/frida-kahlo-70745811/?page=6.

Medrut, F. (2018, November 28). 30 Frida Kahlo Quotes to Inspire You to Turn Pain Into Beauty. Goalcat.com. Retrieved September 10, 2021, from https://www.goalcast.com/17-frida-kahlo-quotes/.

Fahsionbook.com. (n.d.). [Frida] [photograph]. Retrieved September 10, 2021, from https://hips.hearstapps.com/hmg-prod.s3.amazonaws.com/images/gettyimages-3249013-1525360197.jpg?crop=0.832xw:1.00xh;0.165xw,0&resize=480:*

Retrieved September 10, 2021, from PBS. (2005, March). The life and the times of Frida Khalo.PBS.org.https://www.pbs.org/weta/fridakahlo/today/index.html