Top 10 things to know about the artist Frida Kahlo

 

Do you like modern art? Frida Kahlo is a world famous painter.

Born in 1907 and dying in 1957 at the age of 47, Kahlo is a character in her own right who never ceases to amaze us.

 

 

 

The artist's name is actually not that simple to remember!
Her full name is Magdalena Frida Carmen Kahlo Calderón!
She was born in Mexico City and proudly represents her country in her paintings and lifestyle.

 

 

Frida was frail from an early age and suffered from polio at the age of 6.
After contracting this infection, her right leg could not grow properly and she suffered chronic pain.
But the worst was not yet over. In 1925, while returning from school, she was involved in a serious bus accident.
She was seriously injured, a metal bar pierced her abdomen, she suffered numerous fractures, broken bones and ribs, her pelvis and spine were also affected. She was bedridden for many months. It was while in bed that she began to paint, probably as an outlet for her pain.

 

The artist's birth card does indeed say 6 July 1907.
However, the artist keeps saying that she was born on 7 July 1910...
The day of the Mexican revolution, which lasted 10 years. The artist is indeed a patriot and remains firmly attached to her country.
Hence this little lie!
 

No, Kahlo was not originally destined to be a painter! Her main ambition as a young woman was to study medicine.
She was very good at natural sciences and managed to be among the top 35 students in a very famous Mexican school.
If she was interested in the arts, thanks to her father, it was mainly as a hobby. Until her recovery, she did not think of taking up painting seriously.
 

It is not by chance that there are so many Frida Kahlo self-portraits!
The artist chose herself as her first subject, because she painted in bed, lying down all day.
She depicts her own image in order to recount and exorcise her pain.
There are 55 self-portraits, for a total of 145 paintings.
She depicts herself without modesty or shame and openly paints her weaknesses, her anxieties and her past.

 

 

🎨The 5 emblematic paintings of the greatest Mexican painter
 

Frida went to Paris in 1939 to attend the exhibition on Mexico and meet artists such as André Breton, Yves Tanguy, Pablo Picasso and Vassily Kandinsky. Invited by Breton to the exhibition, she came away disgusted.
She called the event a "smoke factory" and said she would rather sit on the floor of a market selling tortillas than have anything to do with this type of artist, whom she did not hesitate to call names.

 

Did you know that she was married to Diego Rivera, a great Mexican artist? She met her future husband in 1928.
He was already a well-known artist who produced frescoes for the Mexican government.
If the couple was mythical, their relationship was no less tumultuous: they had affairs, a divorce occurred in 1938, and they remarried in 1940.
 

It was in 1928 that the artist joined the Mexican Communist Party and became politically active.
Her husband, Diego Rivera, was also in this party. They welcomed Leon Trotsky and his wife in 1937, in their blue house, as a political refugee.
In addition to her political commitment, she was a strong advocate for women's rights.
 

Her paintings reflect the hardships and pain that the artist experienced.
In addition to suffering from her accident and her deformed leg, Kahlo suffered from Asherman's Syndrome as a result of the bus accident, which led to several miscarriages.
Some of Frida's paintings evoke these incidents and the suffering they caused.
At the end of her life, the artist had her right leg amputated. She suffered from suicidal thoughts and pain for the rest of her life.

 

Today, Kahlo is an international artist who has become a true pop icon.
Popular culture has seized upon this singular and moving figure. Whether it is to reproduce her paintings, to be inspired by them, to adorn derivative products or to support a feminist cause, Kahlo's image is everywhere. Tribute or commerce? Difficult to answer!