Frida Kahlo, who was a Mexican artist, is well known for her self-portraits, pain and passion as well as her bold, vibrant colours. She is honoured in Mexico for her attention to Mexican and indigenous culture and by feminists for her portrayal of the female experience and form.
Frida Kahlo Didn’t Always Dream Of Being An Artist
Early on in her life, Frida was on a pre-med track to become a doctor. Born Magdalena Carmen Frida Kahlo, on 6 July 1907 in Coyocan, Mexico City, Mexico she often said that she was born in 1910 as she wanted her birth to coincide with the start of the Mexican Revolution.
The third daughter of her parents, Kahlo had two older sisters and one younger sister. Growing up, she experienced many health challenges, contracting polio at the age of six. Later, it resulted in her right leg growing much thinner as opposed to the left, which caused her to walk with a limp. Frida started to wear longer skirts so that she could hide her limp. Later her father encourage her to participate in sports to aid in her recovery.
She went on to go to the National Preparatory School in Mexico City in 1922. In the September of that year, she was involved in a serious car accident after the bus she was on crashed into a streetcar. After a number of weeks in the hospital, Kahlo was sent home, bedridden, for further recovery. She started painting during her time she spent recovering. Kahlo was best known for her self-portraits.
Frida said, “I paint myself because I am so often alone and because I am the subject I know best.” Kahlo became her own muse as she spent most of her time alone with her thoughts. Her parents made her a special easel to allow her to paint in her bed. Out of Kahlo’s 143 paintings, fifty-five are self-portraits. In 1932, long before Dubai video poker was available, Frida Kahlo’s works started to become more realistic and more surrealistic.
Marrying Diego Rivera And Travels To The US
Soon after she married Rivera in 1929, Kahlo altered her personal and painting style. She started to wear the traditional Tehuana dress which became her trademark. It involved a flowered headdress, a loose blouse, gold jewellery as well as a long ruffled skirt.
Her painting Frida and Diego Rivera (1931) demonstrates not only her new attire however also her new interest in Mexican folk art. The subjects are flatter and more abstract as opposed to those in her previous work. The tall Rivera stands to the left, clutching a palette and brushes, the objects of his profession.
He looks like an important artist, while Kahlo, who is petite and demure next to him, with her hand in his hand and with darker skin as opposed to in her previous work, portrays the role that she presumed he wanted: a traditional Mexican wife.
Frida Kahlo Museum
The family home where Frida Kahlo was born and grew up and was later referred to as the Blue House or Casa Azul, opened its doors as a museum in 1958.
