Frida Kahlo: The Woman, The Wife, The Artist

Magdalena Carmen Frida Kahlo y Calderón, as her name appears on her birth certificate was born on July 6, 1907 in the house of her parents, known as La Casa Azul (The Blue House), in Coyoacán. At the time, this was a small town on the outskirts of Mexico City.

FRIDA'S PARENTS:
Her father, Guillermo Kahlo (1872-1941), was born Carl Wilhelm Kahlo in Pforzheim, Germany. He was the son of the painter and goldsmith Jakob Heinrich Kahlo and Henriett E. Kaufmann. Kahlo claimed her father was of Jewish and Hungarian ancestry, but a 2005 book on Guillermo Kahlo argues that he was descended from a long line of German Lutherans.

Wilhelm Kahlo sailed to Mexico in 1891 at the age of nineteen and, upon his arrival, changed his German forename, Wilhelm, to its Spanish equivalent, 'Guillermo'. During the late 1930s, in the face of rising Nazism in Germany, Frida acknowledged and asserted her German heritage by spelling her name, Frieda.

Frida's mother, Matilde Calderón y Gonzalez, was a devout Catholic of primarily indigenous, as well as Spanish descent. Frida's parents were married shortly after the death of Guillermo's first wife during the birth of her second child. Although their marriage was quite unhappy, Guillermo and Matilde had four daughters, with Frida being the third. She had two older half sisters. Frida once remarked that she grew up in a world surrounded by females. Throughout most of her life, however, Frida remained close to her father.

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

Kahlo contracted polio at age six, which left her right leg thinner than the left, which Kahlo disguised by wearing long skirts. It has been conjectured that she also suffered from spina bifida, a congenital disease that could have affected both spinal and leg development.

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 thirty-five 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 continued.

On September 17, 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 right leg, a crushed and dislocated right foot, and a dislocated shoulder. An iron handrail pierced her abdomen and her uterus, which seriously damaged her reproductive ability.

Although 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 underwent as many as thirty-five operations as a result of the accident, mainly on her back and her right leg and foot.

After the accident, Frida 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. Her self-portraits became a dominant part of her life when she was immobile for three months after her accident. She once said, "I paint myself because I am often alone and I am the subject I know best". Her mother had a special easel made for her so she could paint in bed, and her father lent her his box of oil paints and some brushes.

Drawing on personal experiences, including her marriage, her miscarriages, and her numerous operations, Kahlo's works often are characterized by their stark portrayals of pain. Of her 143 paintings, 55 are self-portraits which often incorporate symbolic portrayals of physical and psychological wounds. She insisted, "I never painted dreams. I painted my own reality".

Kahlo was deeply influenced by indigenous Mexican culture, which is apparent in her use of bright colors and dramatic symbolism. She frequently included the symbolic monkey. In Mexican mythology, monkeys are symbols of lust, yet Kahlo portrayed them as tender and protective symbols. Christian and Jewish themes are often depicted in her work. She combined elements of the classic religious Mexican tradition with surrealist renderings.

At the invitation of André Breton, she went to France in 1939 and was featured at an exhibition of her paintings in Paris. The Louvre bought one of her paintings, The Frame, which was displayed at the exhibit. This was the first work by a 20th century Mexican artist ever purchased by the internationally renowned museum.

As a young artist, Kahlo approached the famous Mexican painter, Diego Rivera, whose work she admired, asking him for advice about pursuing art as a career. He immediately recognized her talent and her unique expression as truly special and uniquely Mexican. He encouraged her development as an artist and, soon began an intimate relationship with Frida. They were married in 1929, despite the disapproval of Frida's mother. They often were referred to as The Elephant and the Dove, a nickname that originated when Kahlo's father used it to express their extreme difference in size.

Their marriage often was tumultuous. Notoriously, both Kahlo and Rivera had fiery temperaments and both had numerous extramarital affairs. The openly bisexual Kahlo had affairs with both men (including Leon Trotsky) and women; Rivera knew of and tolerated her relationships with women, but her relationships with men made him jealous. For her part, Kahlo became outraged when she learned that Rivera 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. Their living quarters often were separate, although sometimes adjacent.

A few days before Frida Kahlo died on July 13, 1954, she wrote in her diary: "I hope the exit is joyful - and I hope never to return - Frida". The official cause of death was given as pulmonary embolism, although some suspected that she died from overdose that may or may not have been accidental. An autopsy was never performed. She had been very ill throughout the previous year and her right leg had been amputated at the knee, owing to gangrene. She also had a bout of bronchopneumonia near that time, which had left her quite frail.

Later, in his autobiography, Diego Rivera 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.

A pre-Columbian urn holding her ashes is on display in her former home, La Casa Azul (The Blue House), in Coyoacán. Today it is a museum housing a number of her works of art and numerous relics from her personal life.

--1907--
On July 6, Magdelena Carmen Frida Kahlo Calderón is born in Coyoacá, Mexico, the third of Matilde Calderón and Guillermo Kahlo's four daughters.

--1913--
Frida suffers an attack of Poliolyelitis, permanently affecting the use of her right leg.

--1922--
Frida enters the National Preparatory School, where she Meets Diego Rivera.

--1925--
On September 17, Frida is seriously Injured in a streetcar accident. She begins to paint during her convalescence.

--1926--
Frida Kahlo's earliest paintings include Portraits of Alicia Galant, her Sister Adriana, Miguel N. Lina, and a Self Portrait dedicated to Alejandria Gomez Arias.

--1929--
On August 21, Frida Kahlo Marries Diego Rivera. She is 22 years old, he is 43.

--1930--
On Nevember 10, Frida arrives with Rivera in San Francisco.

--1931--
In San Francisco Frida meets Dr. Leo Eloesser, who becomes her lifetime Medical advisor.

After a brief trip to Mexico in November, Frida and diego travel to New York for his retrospective exbition at the Museum of Modern Art.

--1932--
In Detroit for Diego's work on murals at the Detroit Institute of Arts, Frida is Hospitalized because of severe hemorrhaging.

Frida's Mother Dies.

--1933--
Frida and Diego live in adjoining studio houses built for them by Juan O'Gorman in San Angel.

Diego begins an affair with Christina Kahlo, Frida's Sister.

--1935--
Frida and Diego seperate. Frida temporarily takes an apartment in Mexico City, then in July travels to New York. When she returns, the couple reconciles

--1937--
On January 9, Leon Trotsky and his wife, Natalia Sedova, arrive in Mexico and stay at the Casa Azul.

--1938--
French surrealist Andre Breton visits mexico and meets Frida.

American Collector and film actor Edward G. Robinson purchases 4 works, her first significant sale.

From October 25 to November 14, Frida's first one person exhibition is held at the Julian Levy Gallery in New York.

--1939--
Frida travels to Paris in January for Mexique, an exhibition arranged by Andre Breton which features her paintings. The Louvre purchases her self portrait The Frame.

Frida returns home in April, and in the Fall she and Diego begin divorce proceedings, which are finalized in November.

--1940--
In January The Two Fridas and The Wounded Deer are exhibited in the International Surrealism exhibition arranged by the Gallery of Mexico City.

Frida Goes to San Francisco for further medical treatments from Dr. Eloesser. She shows her work in "The San Francisco Golden Gate International Exposition." The Two Fridas is shown in New York at the Museum of Modern arts exhibition "Twenty Centuries on Mexican Art."

On December 10 in San Francisco Frida remarries Diego.

--1941--
Frida's father dies.

Frida returns to the family home in Coyoacan to live.

--1942--
Rivera begins building Anahuacalli, his anthropological museum.

Frida's "Self Portrait with Braid" is included in the exhibition "20th Century Portraits" at the Museum of Modern Art in New York.

--1943--
A Frida Kahlo Painting is exhibited in a group show "A century of the Portrait in Mexico (1830-1942)" at the Benjamin Franklin Library, Mexico City. Her work is included in "Mexican Art Today" at the Philidelphia Museum of Art and is shown in Peggy Guggenheim's "Art of This Century" Gallery in New York.

Frida begins teaching at the Ministry on Public Education's School of Painting and Sculpture, La Esmeralda.

--1946--
Frida paints Tree of Hope and Stand Firm. She goes to New York for surgery on her spine.

--1947--
Self Portrait as a Tehuana (Diego in My thoughts) is Exhibited in "45 Self Portraits by Mexican Painters from the XVIII the the XX centuries" at the National Institute of Fine Arts.

--1949--
Frida Writes the Essay "Portrait of Diego," and she Paints Diego and I and The Love Embrace of the Universe which is exibited at the inaugural exhibition of the salon de la Plastica Mexicana.

--1950--
Frida is hospitalized for 9 months because of reaccuring spinal problems.

--1951--
Frida paints Self Portrait with Portrait of Dr. Juan Farill, several still lifes, and Portrait of my Father.

--1953--
From April 13-27, Frida's only individual exibition in Mexico is held at the Galauna de Arte Contemporaneo.

In July, her right leg is amputated below the nkee because of gangrene.

--1954--
Frida is hospitalized in April and May.

On July 2, convalescing from bronchial pneumonia, she takes part in a demonstration protesting US intervention in Guatemala.

On the night of July 13, she dies.

--1957--
On November 24, Diego Rivera dies in his San Angel Studio. He is buried in the rotunda of Famous Men in Mexico City, depite his expressed wished to be creamated and his ashed comingled with Frida's.

--1958--
On July 30, the Casa Azul (Blue House) is Opened to the public as the Frida Kahlo Museum.

"My painting carries with it the message of pain."

"Painting completed my life."

"Feet, what do I need you for when I have wings to fly?"

"I paint my own reality. The only thing I know is that I paint because I need to, and I paint whatever passes through my head without any other consideration."

"I paint self-portraits because I am so often alone, because I am the person I know best."

"The most interesting thing about the so-called lies of Diego is that, sooner or later, the ones involved in the imaginary tale get angry, not because of the lies, but because of the truth contained in the lies, which always comes forth."

"I never knew I was a surrealist till Andre Breton came to Mexico and told me I was."

"O'Keeffe was in the hospital for three months, she went to Bermuda for a rest. She didn't make love to me that time, I think on account of her weakness. Too bad."

"I drank to drown my pain, but the damned pain learned how to swim, and now I am overwhelmed by this decent and good behavior."

"I suffered two grave accidents in my life. One in which a streetcar knocked me down.....The other accident is Diego."

"I cannot speak of Diego as my husband because that term, when applied to him, is an absurdity. He never has been, nor will he ever be, anybody's husband."

"I am not sick. I am broken. But I am happy as long as I can paint."

"I drank to drown my pain, but the damned pain learned how to swim, and now I am overwhelmed by this decent and good behavior."

"I hope the leaving is joyful; and I hope never to return."

"I think that little by little I'll be able to solve my problems and survive."

Painting gave Frida an outlet in life. It allowed her to show how she was truly feeling, her emotions and pain. This collage uses her quote "Painting completed my life". I added one of her self portraits, a large letter K and a parrot found from another one of her pieces of artwork, and a colorful frame that I digitally created. It is anoriginal and unique collage.

Again, this design is found on a wide variety of products that you can see a sample below or you can click these links to be taken to the product page:
Frida Kahlo Life (Apparel, bags etc)
Frida Kahlo Life (Non Apparel Items)

Frida focused most of her artwork on herself or the people around her. I used the Frida quote "I paint my own reality" in this digital collage. Since she often has large hands in her paintings, I incorporated them into this design. They are from one of her pieces of art. Again, I used one of her self portraits and a colorful frame. The letter F is for Frida of course.

To find products that use this collage, check below for a few selected items or see all products by clicking here:
Frida Kahlo Reality (Apparel, Bags etc)
Frida Kahlo Reality (Non Apparel Items)