Frida Kahlo
Mexican • 1907-1954
Biography
As a teenager growing up in Mexico City, Kahlo survived a horrific traffic accident that crushed her body and almost killed her. During her convalescence, she felt isolated from others and began painting, especially self-portraits — the genre for which is best known. Although she regained her ability to walk, relapses of extreme pain plagued her for the rest of her life, often rendering her bedridden for months at a time. Her detailed works are highly autobiographical, incorporating themes ranging from her own miscarriages to indigenous Mexican tradition to her tempestuous and volatile relationship with Mexican artist Diego Rivera. She eschewed all labels in her work and rather focused on painting that which was important to her. She is internationally celebrated as an icon of both Mexican culture and feminism, owing to her uncompromising portrayal of the female experience.
Insights
Kahlo rejected the label of 'Surrealism' imposed on her work by André Breton as inaccurate, alleging that, far from painting dreams, she painted her reality.
Kahlo claimed to have been born in 1910, three years later than she really was, as she wanted her birth to coincide with the beginning of the Mexican Revolution and the birth of modern Mexico.
Her painting The Frame was the first work of a twentieth-century Mexican artist to be bought by the Louvre.
"I never paint dreams or nightmares. I paint my own reality."