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Frida Kahlo Biography

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Frida Kahlo is one of the most influential and well-known artists of Latin descent from the twentieth century. Born in Mexico to a German photographer and a Catholic housewife, she came of age during an era of great political change and the emergence of modern art.

At 18 years old she suffered critical injuries from a devastating bus accident that left her with a lifetime of pain and unable to bear children. While bed-ridden in a body cast she began to paint, channeling her anguish and pain through self-portraits of striking surreal images that addressed the duality of her heritage and her fractured body. This duality permeated through other areas of Frida’s life as she engaged in love affairs with both men and women and made the traditional Mexican style of hair and dress her signature look even though she delighted in dressing in slacks and men's clothing from time to time.

She was married to the celebrated Mexican artist Diego Rivera, a union that proved to be synergistic as he often painted her into his murals, yet also tumultuous as she struggled with his notorious infidelity.

Despite poor health throughout much of her life, Frida's passion went beyond art and love as she was also extremely political, joining the communist league as a student and actively supporting key figures of the movement.

Frida Kahlo died in 1954 at the age of 47 and is remembered as one of the most important Latin American artists in modern art.

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INTERESTING FACTS

  • Mexican actress Salma Hayek portrayed Frida Kahlo in the 2002 film "Kahlo".
  • Frida's 1943 painting "Roots" sold for $5.6 million at auction, setting a record for the sale of a Latin American work of art.
  • Frida's painting, "My Birth," 1932, is owned by Madonna.
  • Frida often claimed 1910, the start of the Mexican revolution, as her birth year in order to be more closely associated with the important event.
  • Frida Kahlo was born at her parents' home "Casa Azul" (Blue House) which is now a museum dedicated to her life and art.
  • Frida's self-portrait "The Frame" is the first work by a 20th century Mexican artist to be purchased by the Louvre museum.
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NOTABLE WORKS OF ART

  • "Self-Portrait in a Velvet Dress" (1926)
  • "Time Flies" (1929)
  • "Frieda and Diego Rivera" (1931)
  • "The Frame" (1937/8)
  • "What The Water Gave Me" (1938)
  • "The Two Fridas" (1939)
  • "Self-Portrait as a Tehuana" (1943)
  • "The Broken Column" (1944)
  • "Moses" (1945)
  • "Diego and I" (1949)
  • "The Love Embrace of the Universe, the Earth (Mexico), Me, Diego, and Mr. Xolotl" (1949)
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SELECTED BIOGRAPHIES

  • Frida: A Biography of Frida Kahlo by Hayden Herrera (1983)
  • The Diary of Frida Kahlo: An Intimate Self-Portrait by Frida Kahlo, Carlos Fuentes, and Sarah M. Lowe (1995)
  • Frida Kahlo by Mike Venezia (1999)
  • Frida Kahlo 1907-1954: Pain and Passion by Andrea Kettenmann (2000)
  • Frida Kahlo by Hayden Herrera, Victor Zamudio-Taylor, Elizabeth Carpenter, and Kathy Halbreich (2007)
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Frida Kahlo Timeline

  • 1907
      • Magdalena Carmen Frieda Kahlo y Calderon is born on July 6th in Coyoacan, Mexico to Matila and German-born Guillermo Kahlo, a photographer.
  • 1913
      • She is stricken with polio and recovers after nine months, but is left with a smaller right leg and a limp. She then attends primary school at Mexico's German school - the Colegio Aleman where she is nicknamed "peg-leg Frida".
  • 1922
      • Enrolls in a premedical program at the Escuela Nacional Preparatoria in Mexico City. Out of 2000 students, Frida is one of only 35 women accepted into the prestigious institution.
      Joins a socialist-nationalistic group called Los Cachuchas and soon begins dating Alejandro Gomez Arias, the leader of the group. She also meets Mexican artist Diego Rivera, who is at the school to paint a mural.
  • 1925
      • Works as an apprentice to her father's friend Fernando Fernandez, a commercial printmaker, who teaches her to draw and copy prints.
      Suffers critical injuries in a bus accident on September 17th - her spinal column, collarbone, ribs, and pelvis are broken; she fractures her leg in eleven places; her abdomen and uterus are punctured by an iron handrail. While she is bed-ridden and encased in a body cast she takes up painting, often making self-portraits, including "Self-Portrait in a Velvet Dress".
  • 1927
      • Joins the Young Communist League.
  • 1928
      • Meets up with Diego Rivera again when seeking out his advice on her paintings. The two begin a romantic relationship. He paints her into his "Ballad of the Revolution" mural at the Ministry of Public Education, in a panel named "Frida Kahlo Distributes the Arms".
  • 1929
      • Weds Diego Rivera on August 21st at the Coyoacan city hall in Mexico. She leaves the communist party after Diego is kicked out. The couple then moves to Cuernavaca, Mexico.
  • 1930
      • She terminates a pregnancy due to medical complications, then moves to San Francisco, California with Diego.
  • 1931
      • Her art is shown for the first time as her painting "Frida and Diego Rivera" is exhibited at the 6th Annual Exhibit of the San Francisco Society of Women Artists.
  • 1932
      • Moves with Diego to Detroit, Michigan, where she suffers a miscarriage, spending 13 days at the Henry Ford Hospital. While in the hospital, she paints the self-portrait "Miscarriage in Detroit". She returns to Mexico after receiving word that her mother is dying.
  • 1933
      • Moves to New York with Diego when he receives a commission to paint a mural in the RCA building at Rockefeller Center. They return to Mexico after the commission is rescinded because Diego paints Lenin into the mural.
  • 1934
      • She is hospitalized for appendicitis and undergoes foot surgery where several toes are removed and also has a third pregnancy terminated because of complications.
      She separates from Rivera after learning of his affair with her sister, Cristina. The following year, she embarks on a romantic relationship with the sculptor Isamu Noguchi.
  • 1936
      • After the Spanish civil war breaks out, Frida and Diego help raise money for the Mexicans fighting against Franco's forces.
  • 1937
      • Frida provides safe harbor for Russian communist Leon Trotsky and his wife at her Blue House in Mexico. She has an affair with Trotsky for a few months. Has her first public showing in Mexico when four of her paintings are included in a group exhibition at the Galeria de Arte at the National Autonomous University.
  • 1938
      • Surrealist Andre Breton labels her a surrealist painter and helps her get her first solo exhibition at the Julian Levy Gallery in New York.
  • 1939
      • She travels to France where her work is featured in an exhibition at the Renou and Colle Gallery, aided by French artist Marcel Duchamp. While in Paris, she is hospitalized for a kidney infection. After returning to Mexico, she divorces Diego Rivera by the end of the year, but remarries him in a civil ceremony in San Francisco on December 8th the following year.
  • 1941
      • Her art is shown in the "Modern Mexican Painters" exhibit at the Institution of Modern Art in Boston. The following year her work is included in the exhibit "20th-Century Portraits" at the Museum of Modern Art.
  • 1943
      • Teaches at the Education Ministry's School of Painting and Sculpture (La Esmeralda), but after a few months her ailing health forces her to teach art classes at home in the Blue House. The next year she begins keeping a journal until her death.
  • 1946
      • Awarded the National Prize of Arts and Sciences by the Ministry of Education.
      Undergoes a painful bone-graft operation in June.
  • 1950
      • Spends the majority of the year in the hospital undergoing operations on her spine, confining her to a wheelchair.
  • 1952
      • Paints a series of still-life and collects a list of signatures in support of the peace movement.
  • 1953
      • Her right leg is amputated below the knee due to gangrene and she is carried in a bed to attend her art show at the Mexico City Gallery of Contemporary Art.
  • 1954
      • She participates in a demonstration against American intervention in Guatemala on July 2nd.
      Frida Kahlo dies on July 13th at the age of 47. The cause of death is recorded as pulmonary embolism and her last written journal entry reads "I hope the exit is joyful - and I hope never to return - Frida"
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