Frida Kahlo de Rivera was a famous artist born in the small town of Coyoacan just on the

outskirts of Mexico City. Frida was born on July 6th, 1907 in the house of her parents known
locally as "La Casa Azul". Her Father, Guillermo Kahlo was born Carl Wilhelm Kahlo in
Germany. He was the son of painter and goldsmith Jakob Heinrich Kahlo and Henriette
Kaufmann. In 1891 at the age of 19, Frida's father boarded a ship to mexico. Once he arrived he
changed his legal name to Guillermo, which was the spanish equivalent to his birth name,
Wilhelm. Guillermo married his first wife, Maria Cardena in 1895. Unfortunately she passed
away while giving birth to the couple's third child . He then asked Antonio Calderon to marry his
daughter Matilde. Although the marriage of Guillermo and Matilde Calderon was an unhappy
one it produced four healthy children,of which frida was the third. Frida grew up with two older
sisters Matilde and Adriana, and one younger sister, Cristina. She later commented that she grew
up in a world surrounded by females (Chilvers, 2009). This may have had a major impact on how
an older Frida would later conduct herself, as she believed heavily in self expression and with a
very strong and dualistic personality, was eventually seen as an revolutionary woman. She would
boldly and happily embrace and wear her signature unibrow even though the typical in society
would be to have it separated. Though she had a largely female family, Frida remained very close
to her father.
The Mexican revolution began in 1910 when Frida was 3 years old. Frida would later
claim to be born in 1910 to coincide with and have people associate her birth with the revolution.
During the revolution Frida could recall her mother running her sisters and her back into the
house with the sound of gunfire echoing through the streets. Her hometown was very poor at the
time and in some instances she would find her mother cooking for tired and hungry
revolutionaries. At the age of 6, Frida contracted polio, which lead to her being bedridden for
months. Unfortunately this resulted in her right leg to grow thinner than her left leg, causing her
to limp. She would hide this deformity by wearing long brightly colored skirts. Frida may have
also suffered from Spina Bifida which was a congenital disease that could have affected both
spinal and leg development. Her father Guillermo encouraged her openly to pursue and
participate in sports such as soccer, swimming & wrestling to help in her recovery (Frida Kahlo
Biography, n.d.).

In 1922, Kahlo decided to pursue the study of medicine and enrolled in the Preparatoria,
which was one of Mexico's premier schools at the time. She was likely motivated to do so as her
mother had lacked the luxury of formal education growing up. Frida was one of only 35 female
students enrolled. She spent her time with politically and intellectually like minded students,
eventually joining a gang of students primarily from her school. She became infatuated with the
leader, Alejandro Gomez Arias due to his strong personality and eventually became romantically
involved with him. She came to witness many violent armed struggles in the streets of mexico
while the mexican revolution continued on & became very well known for her colorful taste in
clothing and jewellery.
On September 17th, 1925, Kahlo and Arias were travelling together on a streetcar when a
vehicle collided with the bus. The accident was nearly fatal for Kahlo who sustained several very
serious injuries.The collision left Kahlo with a broken collarbone, spinal column, pelvis, broken
ribs and eleven fractures to her right leg. She also suffered a crushed and dislocated right foot
and a dislocated shoulder. She unfortunately was also impaled with a iron or steel handrail which
pierced her abdomen and uterus compromising the extent of her reproductive capacity. This
incident left Frida in a tremendous amount of pain as she recovered in a full body cast. While she
was eventually able to learn how to walk again she had relapses of intense and severe pain for
the rest of her life and was often bedridden for months at a time. Kahlo had to receive 35
operations as a result of the accident, medical complications and permanent damage prevented
her from having children, though she was able to conceive multiple times they needed to be
terminated. Her 1932 painting titled "Henry Ford Hospital" was painted right after a miscarriage.
Frequent miscarriages due to the inability to carry her children resulted in a lot of pain both
physically and emotionally for her and served as another influence on her later ensuing artistic
endeavours. To occupy the extensive amount of time spent alone recovering she started painting
using a special easel her mother had made for her and the oil paints and brushes her father lent
her. Self-portraits became a predominant part of her life as she was stuck in recovery alone as she
was "the subject she knew best" (Frida Kahlo Biography, n.d.).
Her self-portraits were an outlet to express her frustrations with life, her passion and her
heartbreak. She drew on personal experiences such as her marriage, miscarriages, numerous

operations and her self-portraits were normally distinguished and characterized by outright
portrayals of pain. A large amount of her paintings are self-portraits, mostly incorporating these
symbolic depictions of nightmarish physical pain and psychological wounds (Chilvers, 2009).
Kahlo once said "I never paint dreams or nightmares, I paint my own reality" (Frida Kahlo
Biography, n.d.) which may be a chance glimpse into the depth of her suffering. Kahlo was
profoundly influenced by the indigenous mexican culture and folk art which was apparent in her
use of bright colors in both her dress and paintings but also in her powerful symbolism (Chilvers,
2009). In mexican mythology it is said monkeys are the symbol of lust where Kahlo frequently
included the symbolic monkey in her works and characterized them as tender and protective.
Again she was very well known for her colorful taste in clothing and jewellery as she frequently
clothed herself in the elaborate Tehuana costumes of the Indigenous maidens.
Frida Kahlo greatly admired and was largely influenced by her husband Diego Rivera.
Diego Rivera was a well known famous mexican muralist. Frida originally met him while
seeking advice on her blossoming artistic career. Diego realized her potential and recognized her
artistic expression as "uniquely mexican" (The Life and Times of Frida Kahlo . Life of Frida,
n.d.). Rivera adamantly encouraged her progress and development as an artist and eventually,
though Rivera was already married at the time, the two began an intimate relationship. Though
Frida's family disapproved, the two were married in 1929. Frida's father often referred to them as
"the elephant and the dove" to acknowledge their acute difference in size (Frida Kahlo - The
complete works, n.d.). It was a rocky marriage as both parties had very volatile fiery tempers
and both participated in extramarital affairs regularly. Kahlo was openly bisexual and had
relations with both men and women and while Diego did not mind the women, Frida's affairs
with men tended to make him very jealous (Frida Kahlo - The complete works, n.d.). Inevitably
their illicit love affairs caught up to them when Diego had an affair with Frida's youngest sister
Cristina. This eventually resulted in the couple divorcing in 1939 only to be remarried again in
1940 without much change.

In 1936 when Stalin came to communist power over Russia, his rival Leon Trotsky was
forced into exile. As a result communist communities around the world were divided in their

loyalties. Diego Rivera, who had actively participated in communist politics with his wife,
alienated himself from the mainstream communist communities in mexico at the time and
decided to align himself with Trotsky. He requested Mexican President Lazaro Cardenas grant
Trotskys Mexican sanctuary. As an active communist sympathizer, Diego Rivera befriended
Leon Trotsky and allowed him and his wife to live with himself and Frida for the next two years
(Chilvers, 2009). While Frida was attracted to Trotskys gleaming status in Diego's eyes and
found his stature on the worlds stage appealing, he was a known womanizer prone to be attracted
to beautiful women. Other than her strong interest in him, he really had very little influence on
Kahlo's social ideals. Each of their fascination with each other ultimately developed into an
affair, though Frida quickly grew tired of him (Frida Kahlo - The complete works, n.d.). Frida
Kahlo's art was greatly influenced by the indigenous culture and is displayed by her use of bright
colors, primitive symbolism and artistic style. She often combined classic religious mexican
traditional elements with surrealist renditions. In 1938 the Julien Levy Gallery in the United
States hosted her only solo gallery exhibit. Her paintings were very well received and many
exceptional well known artists were in attendance including Andre Breton. Andre Breton who
considered her a surrealist, was very impressed by her artwork and invited Frida to France
where she had another display of her artwork in Paris. One of her paintings that was featured at
the exhibit, "The Frame" was purchased by the Louvre and was the first piece of artwork
rendered by a 20th century mexican artist to be purchased by the well known museum.
Frida Kahlo died July 13, 1954. Diego Rivera, her husband and partner for many years, wrote
that
The day Kahlo died was the most tragic day of his life, adding that, too late, he had
realized that the most wonderful part of his life had been his love for her. (Frida Kahlo
Biography, n.d.)
Frida was cremated as per her wishes and her ashes sit in an urn on display at La Casa Azul, her
home for many years.

Bibliography
Chilvers, [edited by] Ian. (2009). The Oxford Dictionary of Art and Artists (Oxford Paperback
Reference) (4th ed.). New York: Oxford University Press.
Frida Kahlo Biography. (n.d.). Retrieved 10 March 2015, from
http://www.biography.com/people/frida-kahlo-9359496
Frida Kahlo - The complete works. (n.d.). Retrieved 10 March 2015, from http://www.fridakahlo-foundation.org/
The Life and Times of Frida Kahlo . Life of Frida. (n.d.). Retrieved 10 March 2015, from
http://www.pbs.org/weta/fridakahlo/life/index.html