Frida Kahlo was one of the most noteworthy artists of the 20th Century, although until recently, little mention has been made of her life and work. A mixture of Surrealism and folk art, with a lot of introspection, her paintings are fascinating glimpses into Mexican life during the first half of the century. Frida has fascinated many, and it seems that she has become the icon of a generation. The subjects she chose to paint reveal the dichotomy of her own life: the self-portraits, often graphic and bloody, show both her physical and emotional pain; the still lives of luscious fruit and flowers show the sensual joy of life which she also experienced. However, like fruit, sometimes life can be spoiled. Frida was born Magdalena Carmen Frida Kahlo y Calderon on June 6, 1907, to Guillermo Kahlo, born of Hungarian-Jewish parents in Germany, and Matilde Calderon, a Mexican of mixed Indian and Spanish heritage. She was born in the Blue House (La Casa Azul) at 247 Londres Street, in Coyoacan, Mexico. At age seven, she contracted polio. It is also thought that she might have had spina bifida or scoliosis, which contributed to the problems she had later in life. At age 18, she was in a bus accident in which she was severly injured: her spinal column was broken in three places, her pelvis was fractured, her collarbone, two ribs, and right leg and foot all broken, and her left shoulder was dislocated. She spent a month in the hospital, encased in a plaster cast. From that point on, her life was a downhill struggle. During the course of her life, she was to have some thirty-five or so operations, mostly on her spine and right foot. This accident and the painful aftermath made Frida into the artist she was. She spent much of her time lying prone, in a series of orthopedic corsets, "bored as hell in bed." She had no special art training other than the requisite high school art courses, but had originally thought to earn her living by doing scientific illustrations for medical publications. Instead, she started painting - and not insipid landscapes and floral arrangements, but paintings revealing the depths of her suffering, both mental and physical. Frida married Mexican muralist Diego Rivera on August 21,1929. Their marriage was turbulent and fraught with emotion. Diego was a womanizer who had many affairs during their marriage, one with Frida's own sister. Frida, in turn had affairs as well, with women and men. One of the more scandal-filled affairs was with Leon Trotsky, who was murdered shortly thereafter. Diego and Frida divorced in 1940 for one year, then remarried. Despite the problems between them, the two passionate artists were the creative inspiration and the love of each other's life. Frida and her work became known through the artistic circles of the world only in the last 20 years or so. During her lifetime, she had only one show in her native Mexico. This was in 1953, and she was hospitalized at the time because of her increasingly declining health. Despite doctor's warnings to the contrary, Frida arrived at her exhibition on a stretcher, much to the amazement of the crowd. Soon thereafter, however, she had a gangrenous leg amputated and was beginning her last downward slide. On July 13, 1954, Frida died. According to legend, when her body was about to go through the cremation furnace, the blast of heat caused her body to sit bolt upright on the conveyor, much to the shock and dismay of all present. But Frida died as she lived her life - with a vengeance.

Life || Art || Photos Contents | Frida Kahlo | Swing | Saffron Fish AOL Diary | Pasionara | My $1.59 Worth | Critic's Corner Point Of View | Ask the Minx | Past Issues | E-Mail Me All information © 1998 by the WebGoddess. No portion of this site may be copied without permission.