Frida Kahlo claimed to start her life in 1910, the year of the outbreak of the Mexican Revolution because she wanted her life to begin in the era of the modern Mexico. She was really born in Mexico city on July 6th, 1907. She lived a life rich in art but plagued with illness as Kahlo contracted Polio at the age of five which was worsened by a bus accident where her spine was broken in three places among other things. She was subjected to over thirty operations to fix her body but due to the medicine of the time these were mostly systems to strectch her body and consets to hold things together.

Although she was injured that did little to derail Kahlo's personal life, she married Diego Rivera, another Mexican painter. It has been said that Kahlo's painting skills were refired by her union with Diego Rivera.

Originally a self taught painter, Kahlo's paintings, rooted in 19th-century Mexican portraiture, ingeniously incorporated elements of Mexican pop culture, pre-Columbian primitivism, and Native Indian that had never been done before. Kahlo died on July 13th, 1954, though no official autopsy was done, suicide is suspected as her last journal entry read "I hope the leaving is joyful and I hope never to return". She was greatly missed.

Article wrote by Aleka (CL3)

Go Back >>