Frida Kahlo, 1907-1954
Frida Kahlo, who was born July 6, 1907 as Magdalena Carmen Frida y Calderon in Mexico City, was the daughter of a photographer. In 1922 she attended the prestigious National Preparatory School that had just begun to admit girls. She was injured in 1925 in a bus accident that resulted in serious injuries to her pelvis and spine that the doctors didn't think she would survi
...see more »ve. Over the years, she underwent over 35 operations to relieve the pain she struggled with for the rest of her life and eventually had her leg partially amputated. Although she had no formal training, it was during her long convalescence that she began to paint and produced the first of many self-portraits in 1926.
Besides the devastating accident that left her scarred for life both mentally and physically, she had survived polio when she was only six that resulted in a deformed foot, causing her to limp. Kahlo was very influenced by the revolution that occurred in her country just three years after she was born resulting in an overall revival of national pride. She became a communist and was an active participant throughout her life in the social, economic and political atmosphere of changing events in Mexico.
In1928 she became reacquainted with Diego Rivera, the Mexican muralist painter, whom she had met when she was attending school. They married in 1929 and in 1930 they left for the United States where Rivera had commitments for murals, first going to San Francisco, then New York, and later to Detroit. Kahlo and Rivera had a tumultuous marriage that resulted in a divorce and then remarriage.
Kahlo was very proud of her heritage, which was reflected in her art, her clothing, and her home. Her art was like a biography that charted the events in her life, shown in a Mexican folk art style, reminiscent of retablos, small votive pictures found in Mexican churches. Her work represented feminine truth, reality, and suffering. Some artists, like Andre Breton, said she was a surrealist. She did exhibit at some surrealist shows in Paris and New York, but she felt her work was not fantasy, but reality. She always painted alone, which some described as a form of therapy for her.
She taught art in the 1940s and produced some of her best work during this time. In 1954, her first and only solo exhibit in Mexico during her lifetime was held in Mexico City. Because she could not walk, her bed was taken to the exhibit and she was brought there in an ambulance and carried to the bed. She died July 13, 1954 in Mexico City. Her work continues in museums and galleries, private and public collections and at retailers around the world.« see less
E. F. of Vero Beach, Florida says:
"We just received your shipment from Fed Ex, and we love it. It was packed perfectly and exactly as ordered. It's a pleasure doing business with you."