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Her Birth
Magdalena Carmen Frida Kahlo y Calderón, better known as Frida Kahlo, was born on July 6, 1907, to her parents Guillermo and Matilde Kahlo. She was born in the famous blue house, in Spanish La Casa Azul. -
Family Life
Kahlo had seven siblings in total, several of whom were from her father's previous marriage. Her mother was half Spanish and half Amerindian. Her father was German. After her leg became deformed due to Polio, her father encouraged her to play sports to recover, and he pushed her to do sports like swimming, soccer, and even wrestling. -
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Early Life
As a child, Kahlo was very unhealthy, and at the young age of 6 she contracted polio, which left her with a limp. This would affect her for the rest of her life, and she wore long skirts to hide her disfigured leg. -
Education
In 1922, Frida Kahlo enrolled in the National Preparatory School of New Mexico where she developed an interest in medicine. There, she met her future husband Diego Rivera, who was painting a mural for the school. -
A Brush with Death
On September 17, 1925, Kahlo and her friend Alejandro Gomez Arias boarded a bus which was hit, only minutes later, by an electric trolley. Kahlo was severely injured, with a broken back, collarbone, ribs, and many other serious wounds. As a result of the accident, she was bedridden for 9 months. -
Finding Her Passion
While bedridden, Kahlo taught herself to paint. She enjoyed painting self portraits best. She once said about them; 'I paint self-portraits because I am so often alone, because I am the person I know best.' She was probably very lonely while bedridden and she found her passion of painting to ease the pain from the aftermath of the bus accident. -
Diego Rivera
In 1928, Kahlo reconnected with Diego Rivera, whom she met at school. In August of 1929, when Kahlo was 22, she married Diego. However, their marriage was a tumultuous one. Diego had married several times, and had many children already. Kahlo and Diego would end up divorcing and remarrying several times. Diego was a known womanizer who often slept with the models he painted. He was creepy. -
Frida and Diego Rivera
An oil painting created by Kahlo 2 years after her marriage to Diego Rivera, it depicts Kahlo standing next to her husband, who is holding four paintbrushes and a paint palette. She however, is not holding anything except for her red shawl, which is wrapped around her, with her left hand. Her right hand is holding her husband. Perhaps this painting is to show herself simply as Rivera's wife and not an artist. -
Memory, the Heart
This painting is arguably one of Kahlo's saddest. It shows her absolutely heartbroken after the affairs between her husband Rivera and her sister Cristina. In the bottom left corner of the paint is Kahlo's heart, ripped out and pumping blood into the landscape behind her. The place where her heart is pierced by a metal pole. There are also two dresses, one representing one of her backgrounds. This shows that she could also be torn over her own identity. -
What the Water Gave Me
A painting depicting Frida Kahlo in a bathtub, and on the reflections of the water are important events in her lifetime. This includes, her family life, her bus accident, and other tragedies and memories. During a conversation with her friend Julien Levy she described the painting as "An image of passing time about time and childhood games in the bathtub and the sadness of what had happened to her in the course of her life." -
Two Fridas
One of Kahlo's most notable paintings, it depicts two Fridas sitting opposite to each other. One is dressed in European clothing while the second is dressed in traditional Mexican clothing. These represent her two ethnicities and different parts of her identity. Both have their hearts exposed, with a red string connecting them, perhaps representing her connection to both cultures. The Frida on the right is holding a small portrait of Diego Rivera in a locket in her hand. -
Broken Column
This painting was made by Frida Kahlo shortly after undergoing spinal surgery, which was a result of her bus accident in which she broke her spine. This painting shows all of her pain, with a broken metal column in place of her spine. It is very raw and real and it captures her emotions and hardships as the painting is very sad. -
The Affairs
Diego and Frida's marriage was riddled with adultery. Both of them had several extramarital affairs. One of the most infamous was when Diego slept with Maria Felix, one of Frida's "friends" and a famous actress in her time, just a mere five years before Kahlo's death. Both of them slept with Kahlo's younger sister. Gross. -
Death
Frida Kahlo met a sad end on the 13th of July in 1954, when she was 47. Her official cause of death was labelled as a pulmonary embolism, which is when a blood clot stops blood flow to a lung by blocking the artery. However, there were many rumors surrounding her death. -
Suicide?
Many believe to this day that Frida Kahlo committed suicide via overdose. There were many factors for these rumors, including the fact that she seemed to be depressed. Her last entry on her diary read; "They amputated my leg six months ago, they have given me centuries of torture and at moments I almost lost my reason. I keep on waiting to kill myself. I hope the exit is joyful and I hope never to come back." Whether or not she took her own life, she was definitely suffering in her last days. -
Frida Kahlo Remembered
Although it has been several decades since she passed, Frida Kahlo will always be remembered. She inspired generations and was known for her zest for life. She will be immortalized through her artworks and unique ideas.