Frida Kahlo, mexican queen of self-portraits.
Few artists are s strongly associated with their self-portraits as Khalo. The uncompromising and vibrant portraits have become symbols of both feminism and Mexican identity. And even though it's been nearly 70 years since Frida Kahlo passed away, she continues to fascinate and inspire.
Frida Kahlo, 1939.
Early life and formative years
She was born in 1907 as the third daughter in a wealthy and intellectual family, where her father was a photographer. She inherited her cultural and political interests from her family, which followed her throughout her life. At the age of six, she contracted polio, which made her right leg thinner than the left, which made her limp. Despite this, she played both soccer and wrestled - something that was unusual for a girl at that time.
At the age of 18, she was seriously injured in a traffic accident when the bus she was in collided with a tram. Her spine was crushed, her pelvis was impaled by a metal rod, and one of her feet was crushed. She underwent many surgeries but suffered permanent damage to her spine and uterus among other things. The periodically intense pain after the accident followed her throughout her life and influenced her art.
After the accident, she was bedridden for almost a year, and during her convalescence, she began to paint naive still lifes and self-portraits in oil. It is often said that the boredom and idleness during the recovery that followed the accident was the starting point for her artistic career.
Although Frida Kahlo is now world-famous for her paintings, during her lifetime she was most known for her sometimes stormy marriage to the 20-year-older artist Diego Rivera. They married in 1929 when Frida was 21 years old, divorced in 1939, only to remarry a year later. They both had affairs outside of marriage - Diego even had a relationship with Frida's younger sister. Frida herself was alleged to have had a relationship with the Russian politician and revolutionary Lev Trotsky.
Frida Kahlo's Art
Characteristic of Frida Kahlo's self-portraits is the rich facial hair, often with almost conjoined eyebrows and a prominent mustache. Recurring themes are identity, the human body, and death, and it is not uncommon for her paintings to have morbid elements, such as detailed depictions of abortions, the female body's interior, mutilated body parts, and blood. But also Mexico's rich vegetation and wildlife are frequent in Frida Kahlo's still lifes and self-portraits. Her husband Diego Rivera also appears in several paintings.
The image of Frida Kahlo as a hard-tested and tormented artist has long been widely accepted. Her art is often interpreted as an expression of her personal tragedies, but in recent years questioning voices have been raised regarding the interpretation. Instead, it is argued that her works actually symbolize the Mexican people's struggle and historical suffering. Frida Kahlo was politically committed and taking a stand from a young age, and the traditional interpretation is considered to have sprung from the view of women at the time: Frida Kahlo was assumed to suffer because of her husband's notorious infidelity and her presumed involuntary childlessness. It is said that she had several miscarriages, but she is also said to have had several abortions. She is often called a surrealist, but Frida Kahlo herself did not want to place herself in any category. She just painted her own existence, she said.
In total, Frida Kahlo completed 143 paintings, of which 55 are self-portraits. She sold almost no paintings during her lifetime, even though she sometimes painted portraits on commission. She held only one solo exhibition in Mexico in 1953, a year before her death.
Frida Kahlo passed away in 1954 at the age of 47.