Frida Kahlo

Frida Kahlo in 1911 (4 years old)

**Early Life**

Frida Kahlo was born in Coyocoán, Mexico City, Mexico on July 6, 1907 to Guillermo Kahlo and Matilde Calderón y Gonzalez. Her full name, the one listed on her birth certificate, is Magdalena Carmen Frida Kahlo y Calderon. At the age of six, Frida contracted polio which left her leg disfigured. She would later hide this ailment by wearing long, colorful Mexican skirts. Frida was encouraged by her father to particiapate in various sports like soccer and wrestling in the hope that it would help her recovery. It is speculated that Frida also suffered from *spina bifida*, which would have affected her spinal and leg development.

Kahlo was always a critic of her society, even at a young age. When she attended the National Preparatory School in 1922, she joined a group of young people who "espoused a kind of romantic socialism mixed with cultural nationalism." She became romantically involved with Alejandro Gómez Arias, one of the other members.

**The Bus Accident:**

On September 17, 1925, Kahlo and Gómez Arias were on a bus when the vehicle collided with a streetcar, resulting in a collision. Kahlo's injuries were severe, as her hip was impaled by a steel handrail. Her injuries included fractures in her spine and pelvis. She stayed at the Red Cross Hospital in Mexico City for several weeks, returning home later where she had to wear plaster corset. This confined her to bedrest for part of the three months she spent unable to walk. During this time she began painting and finished her first self-portrait in 1926. Painting was the way Kahlo explored questions of identity and existence. She was later quoted saying that the accident and awful recovery period made her desire, "to begin again, painting things just as I saw them with my own eyes and nothing more."

## Frida Kahlo

Kahlo, photographed by her father in 1932

**Marriage(s) to Diego Rivera:**

In June of 1928, Kahlo was introduced to Diego Rivera, one of the most successful artists in Mexico. A couple months after their brief introduction, Diego was asked by Kahlo to judge her paintings so that he could determine if she had enough talent to become a full-time artist. Rivera was very impressed by her works, stating that they showed, "an unusual energy of expression, precise delineation of character, and true severity ... They had a fundamental plastic honesty, and an artistic personality of their own ... It was obvious to me that this girl was an authentic artist". Not too long after they began a romantic relationship, despite the age-gap and Diego's two previous *common-law* wives. Frida and Diego were married at the town hall of Coyoacán on August 21, 1929. Shortly after they moved to Cuernavaca, where Diego was commissioned to paint murals for the Palace of Cortés. Like many other educated young people in post-revolutionary Mexico, Kahlo joined the Mexican Communist Party with her husband Diego. When he was expelled from the party in 1929, Kahlo left as well.

Like many other Mexican women artists at the time, Frida began wearing traditional indigenous Mexican peasant clothing to emphasize her ancestry. This clothing included long and colorful skirts, intricate headdresses and masses of jewelry. These outfits let Frida express her feminist and anti-colonialist ideals, while hiding her damaged body. These outfits also attracted Rivera, who believed that "Mexican women who do not wear Mexican clothing ... are mentally and emotionally dependent on a foreign class to which they wish to belong". Throughout the marriage Kahlo would undergo numerous abortions, always having conflicting emotions about motherhood. During the next couple of years Frida suffered from extensive health problems, which put a strain on her marriage. Despite previous affairs, Diego's affair with Frida's younger sister Cristina was the one to make her move out of their home into a new apartment in central Mexico City. During this break, Frida also had an affair with Isamu Noguchi, an American artist.

In 1935, Frida and Diego reconciled which prompted her to move back into their home in San Ángel. Despite everything, both partners continued their extramarital affairs. One of these affairs included Leon Trotsky, a former Soviet leader granted asylum in Mexico thanks to Frida and Diego's petition. In 1939 the couple would divorce, but then would remarry one year later. However, the second marriage was just as troublesome as the previous one.

## Self-Portrait on the Border Line Between Mexico and the United States

In 1930, when Diego received several commissions to paint murals in United States, the couple moved there for four years. During this time Frida was home sick and miserable. Her misery living in "Gringolandia" inspired this painting.

**Paintings:**

During 1937 and 1938 Frida Kahlo painted more "than she had done in all her eight previous years of marriage". She created works like *My Nurse and I* (1937), *Four Inhabitants of Mexico* (1938), and *What the Water Gave Me* (1938). In her lifetime she created over 200 paintings, drawings and sketches that used elements of classical Mexican tradition, Mexican culture and Surrealism.

A vast amount of Frida's paintings are criticisms of the US. In *"Self-Portrait on the Border Line Between Mexico and the United States,"* Frida painted herself standing between the industrialized United States and a preindustrial Mexico. This painting criticized American capitalism and greed. She also condemns the relationship between the two countries by illustrating electric cords becoming Mexican plant roots, while another cord is plugged into the pedestal on which she stands. She believes American businesses imposed its economic interests on Mexico, which was another form of exploitation. This result of this colonialism and neo-colonialism was the depletion of the lives of the people in Mexico.

**Death:**

Frida's health deteriorated quickly in 1944 which led to her being hospitalized for a year in 1950. Her paintings became more chaotic, thanks her continuous pain and use of drugs and alcohol. Shortly after her first and only solo show, Frida's right leg was amputated because of the chance of gangrene. She later died in July of 1954 of a pulmonary embolism, though it is speculated that she died from an overdose.

**"Fridamania"**

After Frida's death she slowly gained more recognition, mostly in the late 1970s, when feminist scholars questioned the exclusion of females and non-Western artists from the art historical canon. This lead to Frida being made one of the icons for the *Chicano Movement.*

Kahlo's reputation as an artist slowly grew in the 1980's to the point that Mexico declared her works as national cultural heritage, which made the paintings' export from Mexico prohibited. This is why her paintings are rarely ever auctioned off internationally. Despite this her paintings have still broken records for Latin American art. She became the first Latino artist to break the million dollar price tag when *Diego and I* for $1,430,000. In 2006, *Roots* sold for $5.6 million and in 2016, *Two Lovers in a Forest* sold for $8 million.

Frida's induction into pop culture seems to come from people's fascination with her life story, especially its tragedies. She is now an icon for several minority groups and political movements, such as feminists and the LGBTQ community. Kahlo a Trotskyite Communist and very sexually liberated. She made no apologies for herself or her art. She stood independent and fiercely, advocating for her politcal views through her artwork. She saw this as the best way to connect with people and facilitate important dialogue. Her paintings revealed the continuous struggle of women for self-determination. Kahlo created her own identity in her paintings outside the societal norms. Her paintings of conception, pregnancy, abortion and gender roles were political statements that challenged the ideal that women should not address these subjects so openly. Frida's life and art are not only popular with feminist scholars but a broad spectrum of women and some men.

Kahlo's art was a bridge between her private life and people's public lives. They tied together political statements and personal experiences. Frida illustrated the experiences of being a woman at a particularly difficult place and time. Her paintings represented philosophical beliefs, conscious femininity, and showed women the world in a new light. She taught women to refuse to conform, follow their passions, and embrace her sexuality.

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*spina bifida- a congenital defect of the spine in which part of the spinal cord and its meninges are exposed through a gap in the backbone. It often causes paralysis of the lower limbs, and sometimes mental handicap.*

*common-law- a marriage that is considered valid by both partners, but has not been formally recorded with a state or religious registry, or celebrated in a formal religious service*

*Chicano Movement- a movement in the 1960s, also called the Chicano Civil Rights Movement or El Movimiento, whose goal was to promote Mexican American empowerment*

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**Citations:**

Collins, Amy Fine. “Frida Kahlo's Diary.” *Vanities*, Vanity Fair, 19 Sept. 2017, www.vanityfair.com/culture/1995/09/frida-kahlo-diego-rivera-art-diary.

“Frida Kahlo Biography, Art, and Analysis of Works.” *The Art Story*, www.theartstory.org/artist-kahlo-frida.htm.

“Frida Kahlo.” *Biography.com*, A&E Networks Television, 6 July 2017, www.biography.com/people/frida-kahlo-9359496. Accessed 25 Sept. 2017.

“Frida Kahlo, Femininity and Feminism: Why the Painter Is an Icon for so Many Women.” *Firstpost*, 6 July 2017, www.firstpost.com/living/frida-kahlo-femininity-and-feminism-why-the-painter-is-an-icon-for-so-many-women-3782365.html.

Motian-Meadows, Mary. “Kahlo As Artist, Woman, Rebel.” *Kahlo As Artist, Woman, Rebel | Solidarity*, Solidarity, www.solidarity-us.org/node/2782.

Tate. “Frida Kahlo – Exhibition at Tate Modern.” *Tate*, www.tate.org.uk/whats-on/tate-modern/exhibition/frida-kahlo.