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Frida Kahlo (1907 July 6 – 1954 July 13) was a Mexican painter who depicted the indigenous culture of her country in a style combining Realism, Symbolism and Surrealism. An active communist supporter, she was the wife of Mexican muralist and cubist painter Diego Rivera.

She is widely known for her self-portraits often expressing her physical pain and suffering through symbolism. In the last three decades she has gained admiration in Europe and the US resulting in the 2002 movie about her life starring Salma Hayek, which sparked even further interest in the life and arts of Frida Kahlo. Her house in Coyoacán, Mexico is a museum and visited by large numbers of tourists every year.

Childhood and family[edit]

Frida Kahlo was born Margarita Frieda Kahlo in 1907 in her parents' home, known as La Casa Azul (The Blue House) in Coyoacán, which at the time was a small town on the outskirts of Mexico City. Her father, Guillermo Kahlo (1872-1941), was born under the name Carl Wilhelm Kahlo in Pforzheim, Germany. Guillermo's father, the painter and goldsmith Jakob Heinrich Kahlo, and his mother, Henriette née Kaufmann, were both born in Germany.[1]. Wilhelm Kahlo sailed to Mexico in 1891 at the age of 19 and, upon his arrival, changed his German forename Wilhelm to its Spanish equivalent, 'Guillermo'. Frieda later dropped the e in her name and made it "Frida" in about 1935.

Kahlo's mother, Matilde Calderón y Gonzalez, was a devout Catholic of primarily indigenous descent mixed with Spanish. Matilde frowned upon the wild games Frida and her younger sister Cristina played. Frida's parents were married shortly after the death of Guillermo's first wife during her second childbirth. Their marriage was largely unhappy. Guillermo and Matilde gave birth to four children (where Frida was the third of their four girls) and having two older half sisters, Frida grew up in a world surrounded by females. Throughout most of her life, Kahlo was close to her father.

The Mexican Revolution began in 1910 when Kahlo was three years old. In her writings, she recalled that her mother would usher her and her sisters inside as gunfire echoed in the streets of her hometown which was extremely poor at the time. Men would occasionally leap over the walls into her backyard and her mother would sometimes prepare a meal for the hungry revolutionaries. Later, Kahlo would claim that she was born in 1910 so people would directly associate her with the revolution.

Kahlo contracted polio at age six, which left her left leg looking thinner sometimes than the other (a deformity Kahlo hid by wearing long skirts). As a girl, she participated in boxing and other sports. In 1922, Kahlo was enrolled in the Preparatoria, one of Mexico's premier schools, where she was one of only 35 girls. Kahlo joined a gang at the school and fell in love with the leader, Alejandro Gomez Arias. During this period, Kahlo also witnessed violent armed struggles in the streets of Mexico City as the Mexican Revolution.

In September of 1925, Kahlo was riding in a bus when the vehicle collided with a trolley car. She suffered serious injuries in the accident, including a broken spinal column, a broken collarbone, broken ribs, a broken pelvis, eleven fractures in her left leg, a crushed and dislocated right foot, and a dislocated shoulder. An iron handrail impaled her abdomen, piercing her uterus, which seriously damaged her reproductive ability. Though she recovered from her injuries and eventually regained her ability to walk, she was plagued by relapses of extreme pain for the remainder of her life. The pain was intense and often left her confined to a hospital or bedridden for months at a time. She would undergo as many as 35 operations in her life as a result of the accident, mainly on her back and her right leg and foot.

Career as painter[edit]

After the accident, Kahlo turned her attention away from the study of medicine to begin a full-time painting career. The accident left her in a great deal of pain while she recovered in a full body cast; she painted to occupy her time during her temporary state of immobilization. Drawing on personal experiences including her troubled marriage, her painful miscarriages, and her numerous operations, Kahlo's works are often characterized by their stark portrayals of pain. Fifty-five of her 143 paintings are self-portraits, which frequently incorporate symbolic portrayals of her physical and psychological wounds. Kahlo was deeply influenced by indigenous Mexican culture, which is apparent in her paintings' bright colors and dramatic symbolism. Christian and Jewish themes are often depicted in her work as well; she combined elements of the classic religious Mexican tradition--which were often bloody and violent--with surrealist renderings. While her paintings are not overtly Christian--she was, after all, an avowed communist--they certainly contain elements of the macabre Mexican Christian style of religious paintings.

Stormy marriage[edit]

As a young artist, Kahlo approached the famous Mexican Diego Rivera, whom she had previously admired, and asked him for his advice on pursuing art as a career. He immediately recognized her talent and her unique expression truly special and uniquely Mexican. He encouraged her development as an artist, and began an intimate relationship with Frida. They were married in 1929, to the disapproval of Frida's mother. They were often referred to as "The Elephant and the Dove." The nickname originated when Kahlo's father noticed their extreme difference in size.

Their marriage was often tumultuous. Both Kahlo and Rivera had notoriously fiery temperaments and both had numerous extramarital affairs. The openly bisexual Kahlo had affairs with both men and women (including Leon Trotsky); Rivera knew of and tolerated her relationships with women, but her relationships with men made him jealous. For her part, Kahlo was outraged when she learned that Rivera had had an affair with her younger sister, Cristina. The couple eventually divorced, but remarried in 1940; their second marriage was as turbulent as the first.

Late years[edit]

Active communist sympathizers, Kahlo and Rivera befriended Leon Trotsky as he sought political sanctuary from Joseph Stalin's regime in the the Soviet Union. Initially, Trotsky lived with Rivera and then at Kahlo's home, where he and she allegedly had an affair [unverified]. Trotsky and his wife then moved to another house in Coyoacán where he was later assassinated. Sometime after Trotsky's death, Kahlo denounced her former friend and praised the Soviet Union under Stalin. She spoke favorably of Mao Zedong, calling China "the new socialist hope" [unverified].

Kahlo died on July 13, 1954, supposedly of a pulmonary embolism. She had been ill throughout the previous year and had her right leg amputated below the knee owing to gangrene. However, an autopsy was never performed. A few days before her death she had written in her diary: "I hope the exit is joyful; and I hope never to return."

The pre-Columbian urn holding her ashes is on display in her former home La Casa Azul (The Blue House) in Coyoacán, today a museum housing a number of her works of art.

Influence on other artists[edit]

Frida Kahlo has inspired many artists. Edward Weston, Héctor García, Imogen Cunningham, Manuel and Lola Alvarez Bravo, Nicholas Murray, and Guillermo Zamora have all photographed Frida. Many Chicana/o artists have included versions of her self portraits in their work, among them Rupert García, Alfredo Arreguín, Yreina D. Cervántez, Marcos Raya, and Carmen Lomas Garza.

Films and pop culture references[edit]

  • A biographical documentary containing archival footage, entitled Frida Kahlo, was released in 1982 in Amsterdam.
  • In 2000, director Liz Crow released the experimental short film "Frida Kahlo's Corset", starring Isolte Avila as Frida Kahlo.
  • In 2005, director Natalia Nazarova, from Russia, released a short experimental documentary portrait entitled "Frida vs. Frida", revolving around Kahlo's many relationships including Diego Rivera and Leon Trotsky. The film has been screened at many film festivals, including the Ann Arbor Film Festival.
  • In 2005, director Amy Stechler released a comprehensive documentary on Kahlo's life titled "The Life and Times of Frida Kahlo" containing photographs, archival footage and interviews. The film was shown nationally on PBS and nominated for an Emmy award.
  • Frida Kahlo is mentioned in a Tears for Fears song, "Don't Drink the Water."
  • Frida Kahlo inspired the Scottish songwriter Michael Marra to write the song "Frida Kahlo’s Visit To The Taybridge Bar" on his CD Release of 2002, "Posted Sober".
  • A scene in the 2004 film I Heart Huckabees references a painting by Frida Kahlo as Jason Schwartzman takes on Kahlo's role as an infant with an adult head and Jude Law becomes Kahlo's bare-breasted nurse.
  • Frida Kahlo is mentioned in the movie High School Musical, while the 'nerds' are showing the importance of clever and artistic people.
  • In a 2007 episode of King of the Hill Peggy Hill goes to a drag club where the performers impersonate strong iconic women. One of the performers was dressed as Frida Kahlo.
  • In the movie The Princess Diaries Paolo says "I love your eyebrows, we'll call them Frida, and Kahlo"
  • Kahlo was noted for her unconventional appearance, declining to remove her facial hair (she had a small moustache and unibrow which she exaggerated in self portraits) and donning flamboyantly-styled clothing inspired by traditional Mexican dress.

References[edit]

External links[edit]

This article is based on a GNU FDL LGBT Wikia article: Kahlo Frida Kahlo LGBT
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