Frida Kahlo

by David Beaulieu May 27, 2021

Frida Kahlo

Born in 1907, this self-taught artist continues to inspire although her work remained relatively unknown until the late 1970s.

Self-Portrait with Monkeys, 1943, Collection of Jacques & Natasha Gelman, Mexico

Self-Portrait with Monkeys, 1943, Collection of Jacques & Natasha Gelman, Mexico

Did you know?

Frieda. She preferred to spell her name "Frieda" until the late 1930s, when she dropped the 'e' as she did not wish to be associated with Germany during Hitler's rule. Her father, Guillermo Kahlo, was German.

Rivera. Frida married Diego Rivera, the famous Mexican muralist who was 20 years her senior. They married in 1929, they divorced in 1939 and remarried in 1940.

Infidelities. Both Frida and Diego were known to have extramarital affairs which might have been the reason for their divorce. Frida had an affair with Soviet Leader Leon Trotsky. She would later be interrogated after his assassination in Coyoacán in 1940. She was suspected of being involved in his killing.

The Wounded Deer, 1946, Private collection

Deer. Through The Wounded Deer , Kahlo shares her enduring physical and emotional suffering with her audience, as she did throughout her creative oeuvre. She used her pet deer “Granizo” as the model of this portrait.

Accident. A severe bus accident in 1925 left Kahlo in lifelong pain. Confined to bed for three months following the accident, Kahlo began to paint. She started to consider a career as a medical illustrator.

Knowledge. She became a founding member of the Seminario de Cultura Mexicana , a group of twenty-five artists commissioned by the Ministry of Public Education in 1942 to spread public knowledge of Mexican culture. Inspired by the country's popular culture, she employed a naïve folk art style to explore questions of identity, postcolonialism, gender, class, and race in Mexican society.

Azul. Kahlo spent most of her childhood and adult life at La Casa Azul, her family home in Coyoacán – now publicly accessible as the Frida Kahlo Museum.

Health. Frida’s health problems have been continuous during her entire life. Due to her spinal problems, she wore twenty-eight separate supportive corsets, varying from steel and leather to plaster, between 1940 and 1954.

The Frame , 1938, Musée national d’art moderne, Centre Pompidou, Paris

Louvre. In 1939, the Louvre purchased The Frame , making her the first Mexican artist to be featured in their collection. The painting is now shown at the Musée National d'Art Moderne in the Centre Pompidou in Paris.

Original Score. Starring Salma Hayek, the 2002 American biographical drama film “Frida” won the Academy Award for Best Original Score along with Best Makeup.

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