Blog

Frida Kahlo is an artist whose work is hard to appreciate without understanding her story. Frida was born in 1907 to a German father and a Mestizo (a term historically used in Spain and Hispanic America that originally referred to a person of combined European and Indigenous American descent, regardless of where the person was born) mother. However, years later she declared she was born in 1910 during the Mexican Revolution calling herself a “daughter of the revolution”. Frida had always followed her own rules, dressing in suits as a child and always pushing the boundaries on acceptable female behaviour for her time. Most famously her unibrow, which she embraced and refused to pluck. You just can’t overstate the importance Frida played in pioneering feminism in the art world that paved the way for many who came after her. Frida was alive for 47 years, what she experienced in this time was astonishing. Starting from the age of 6 when she was diagnosed with polio, which made her right leg thinner and shorter than her left. Frida aspired to be a doctor; she attended an elite National Preparatory School that only admitted 35 female students out of the 2000 capacity it hosted. This school focused on natural sciences in order to prepare the students to become doctors. One afternoon on the way home from school the bus Frida was riding crashed. Frida suffered many injuries, a fractured pelvis bone, a punctured uterus, her right leg was broken in 11 places, her foot dislocated, her collarbone broken and her spine broken in 3 places. Frida spent a month in hospital believed to have had 13-15 surgeries and three months at home on bed rest. The accident ruined her dreams of becoming a doctor. During this time Frida’s family brought her a special easel she could use lying down and a mirror placed above her bed. It was during this time that Frida discovered her talent for painting and started exploring self-portraiture and anatomy. This might be hyperbolic to say but I do not know of another female artist of her time that poured herself out on the canvas the way she did. Frida met Diego Rivera, a well-established muralist. They had a very tumultuous relationship, which included multiple affairs on both sides. In fact, after Diego had an affair with Frida’s younger sister they divorced. A year later they remarried. Frida and Diego travelled a lot; being a muralist Diego was required to go wherever they needed him. Frida regrettably had two miscarriages, which devastated her, as she wanted to be a mother more than anything in the world. She started exploring themes like can you still be a mother to other things even if you don’t bear your own children? How does not being a mother affect your femininity? Frida was a mother to many animals; she famously had a spider monkey, dogs, cats, birds, a pet deer. She kept them all at her house. Frida is remembered for her self-portraits, pain, passion, and bold, vibrant colours. She is celebrated in Mexico for her attention to Mexican and indigenous culture and by feminists for her depiction of the female experience and form. Frida’s work has always been hard to classify, she never thought of herself as a surrealist, in fact when Andrew Breton told her she was, she rejected it and said she paints her reality. Art historians have debated for years if she was a surrealist, magic-surrealist, primitivism, or realist? I believe above everything, she was an individualist. Want to learn more about Frida Kahlo? Check out "The Biography of Frida Kahlo" by Hayden Herrera. This is the book I used to source my information.