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Birth
Kahlo was born Magdalena Carmen Frieda Kahlo y Calderón on July 6, 1907, in Coyoacán, Mexico City, Mexico. -
Period: to
Frida Kahlo
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Childhood
Around the age of six, Kahlo contracted polio, which caused her to be bedridden for nine months. While she recovered from the illness, she limped when she walked because the disease had damaged her right leg and foot. -
Studies
Kahlo enrolled at the renowned National Preparatory School. She was one of the few female students to attend the school, and she became known for her jovial spirit and her love of colorful, traditional clothes and jewelry. She first met the famed Mexican muralist Diego Rivera when he went to work on a project at her high school. -
The serious accident
Kahlo was traveling on a bus when the vehicle collided with a streetcar. As a result of the collision, Kahlo was impaled by a steel handrail, which went into her hip and came out the other side. She suffered several serious injuries as a result, including fractures in her spine and pelvis. -
The marriage
Kahlo and Diego Rivera got married. -
The New York City exhibition
Kahlo had a major exhibition at a New York City gallery, selling about half of the 25 paintings shown there. She also received two commissions, including one from famed magazine editor Clare Boothe Luce, as a result of the show. -
Meeting Picasso
Kahlo divorced Rivera in 1939 (and remarried him in 1940). Kahlo went to Paris, where she exhibited some of her paintings and developed friendships with such artists as Marcel Duchamp and Pablo Picasso.
Major works:'The Two Fridas','The Suicide of Dorothy Hale' . -
An important commission
Kahlo received a commission from the Mexican government for five portraits of important Mexican women but she was unable to finish the project. -
The solo exhibition
Kahlo received her first solo exhibition in Mexico. While bedridden at the time, Kahlo did not miss out on the exhibition’s opening. Arriving by ambulance, Kahlo spent the evening talking and celebrating with the event’s attendees from the comfort of a four-poster bed set up in the gallery just for her. -
Death
Kahlo died on July 13, 1954.
