Magdalena Carmen Frida Kahlo Calderón, known worldwide as Frida Kahlo, was born on July 6, 1907, in Coyoacán, in the Mexico. With a life marked by passion, pain, suffering and perseverance, Frida Kahlo brought to the world the vibrant colors and energy of the Mexican people in her clothes, ornaments and paintings.
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Childhood and youth
At 6 years old, Frida had polio, a disease that left her with sequelae in one of her legs. For this reason, the painter had to live with the contempt of her schoolmates, who called her “Frida with the wooden leg”. Polio made Frida adopt what would be one of her brands in the future: the long, flashy skirts. To overcome the limitation of poliomyelitis, Frida played sports until then considered male, such as soccer, wrestling and swimming.
It was in childhood that Frida began to arouse interest in the arts. Daughter of German photographer Wilhelme Kahlo and also granddaughter of a photographer, she saw in photography a way to portray the world around her. In addition, her father took her for walks and to follow his amateur paintings.
With part of his childhood lived between shootings and disputes between peasants in the 1910 Mexican Revolution, Frida called herself “daughter of the revolution”. Already his adolescence was in the midst of popular festivals and a cultural effervescence that reached Mexico.
The young Frida studied at the National Preparatory School of San Ildefonso, in Mexico City. There she had contact with student groups from different areas, getting closer to the arts and philosophy adepts.
The turning point in Frida's life and art came when she was 18 years old. A truck crashed into Frida's tram, an accident in which an iron bar went through her body, hitting the girl's belly and pelvis.
This accident left Frida in bed for a long time. With the body immobile and completely in plaster, undergoing more than 30 surgeries to minimize damage caused by the wound, the Mexican found in the painting a way to pass the time and express her feelings.
Health problems
Frida wanted to be a mother, but suffered three miscarriages because of the puncture wounds she had in the accident. The painter carried to the canvases the suffering of not being able to carry on with a pregnancy, as is the case in the painting “Henry Ford Hospital”, work that portrays the loss of her second child in the hospital of the same name, located in the United States.
Frida portrayed the pain of losing her second child in “Henry Ford Hospital”. Work exhibited in the Dolores Olmedo Museum, In Mexico.
With problems in her marriage, resulting in several comings and goings, Frida started to abuse alcohol, which left her weak. Throughout her adult life, she had several infections, needed to use several pain medications, and ended up having to live with the use of an orthopedic vest for the spine.
In 1953, the painter's state of health worsened. Her feet had gangrene and needed to be amputated. Despite the sadness with the situation, this moment immortalized one of her most famous phrases and that represents Frida's entire life: "feet, for what you do I have wings to fly?”.
Frida died on July 13, 1954, in Mexico, by pulmonary embolism.
Relationships
O Frida's great love, as she herself described, was the Mexican muralist Diego Rivera. They met when, after resuming body movements, the young woman decided to show her paintings to the already famous painter.
Frida and Rivera were married when she was 21 and he was 41. They became partners not only emotionally but also in politics, as the two were part of the Mexican Communist Party.
Despite the passion among the artists, Rivera was unfaithful throughout their marriage, including becoming involved with Frida's sister, Cristina, with whom he had several children. With constant betrayals, Frida also began to date other men and women.
The Mexican painter had relationships with several names in arts and politics, one of the most famous being the case with Leon Trotsky. He was Frida's guest, along with his wife, for about two years.
Because of constant betrayals, especially the affair with Cristina, Frida divorced Rivera, a period in which she focused on her career and increased her production of paintings. However, the two ended up marrying again, despite constant bickering. They remained together until the end of Frida's life.
paintings
Frida's early career began with her accident at age 18. She painted self-portraits based on the vision she had from a mirror in her bed, as she said that she wanted to paint what she saw with her own eyes, that is, something she totally knew. Frida portrayed her life on her canvases, always with strong colors and striking lines, unique characteristics of Kahlo's works.
O first frame it was the Self-portrait in velvet dress, from 1926, a work she did to present her then boyfriend, the young Alejandro Gómez Arias.
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As an adult, her troubled relationship with muralist Diego Rivera became one of the themes present in her painting. In one of their breakups, Frida cut off her characteristic braids, which her husband liked, and made a self-portrait with short hair, with several locks thrown on the floor, to show the change that would come in her life.
“Self-portrait with cut hair”, from 1940, is an answer to the break with Diego Rivera. Constructions exposed at the Museum of Modern Art (MoMA), in New York.
Despite Rivera and Frida's quarrels, as well as the comings and goings, Kahlo felt great admiration for her husband. She portrayed the importance of Diego in her life in the painting “Diego and me”, from 1949, in which the muralist appears as a third eye on the Mexican artist's forehead.
Her work became known worldwide after living outside Mexico. However, it was not until her death that Frida was able to witness an exhibition of hers in the country she loved so much and helped to spread the word around the world.
female figure
Frida brought to the arts something that until then had not been addressed by painters: the intimate feminine issues. Abortions, childbirth and femicide were some of the subjects present in her works.
One of her most shocking works is “Ones Cuantos Piquetitos”, of 1937. On the screen, it is possible to see a naked and bloodied woman on a bed and a man beside her, holding a knife. The painting came from a case that Frida knew about, which was about a husband who killed her. wife out of jealousy and told the judge that they were "just a few small cuts", in an attempt to be acquitted.
Violence against women was something present in Frida's works, as in “Unos Chow many Pquetitos”. Work exhibited in the Dolores Olmedo Museum, In Mexico.
Her own physical frailty was exposed in her paintings. Frida was not afraid to reveal to the world the consequences of the accident she suffered, as can be seen in the box "the broken column”, of 1944. In it, the painter appears with her spine exposed and all broken, as well as nails all over her body. This portrays the pains suffered by her during her life.
Frida carried her own scars and health problems onto the canvas. Work exhibited in the Dolores Olmedo Museum, In Mexico.
THE exposure of your physical vulnerability in contrast to her strength as a woman, the persistence she had and in the struggle against pain, the difficulties in the relationship with Rivera and the sadness of not being a mother are reasons that led to the identification of women around the world, which drew attention From feminist movements.
Frida did not call herself a feminist in her life, but that did not stop her importance in the political and artistic sphere from making her become a reference for the feminist struggle.
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striking figure
Frida drew attention to the peculiarity of your look. She always kept her eyebrows thick and striking, abused the colors and floral and ethnic prints in her clothing, wore large costume jewelry. Mexican influence, in addition to taking with it the atmosphere of Mexico in its furniture, decorations and other objects, no matter where it was. to live.
This eccentricity of Frida made her a woman noticed by everyone, leaving her in the spotlight. However, the same device to be striking was also used to cover up her physical frailty. The colorful, loose-fitting clothes covered the various scars and also the leg from which she was limping.
Frida took her unique style even to her orthopedic vests, which she decorated with flowers, other props and even paintings. She was bothered by the vest, but had to accept the use, so she brought her artistic features to the piece.
Memory
Frida Kahlo's memory is present in books, movies and other works, in addition to being alive in the popular imagination. The house in which she grew up and lived most of her life, the so-called “Blue House”, was transformed into the Frida Kahlo Museum in 1958.
Casa Azul has been home to Frida Kahlo's museum since 1958**
THE Blue house it is the opportunity for fans and curious people to get to know the place where Frida spent her life up close, see the painter's objects and props, as well as some of her works. The festive and colorful Mexican atmosphere remains at the residence located in Coyoacán, Mexico.
Frida was popular in her troubled life and remains in vogue today. The figure of the strong woman, determined and ahead of her time serves as an inspiration for fashion, for example, which keeps her alive for new generations.
Image credits:
*Image credit: Archivo Diego Rivera and Frida Kahlo, Bank of Mexico, Trustee on the Trust for the Diego Rivera and Frida Kahlo Museums. Available in: Frida Kahlo Museum.
**Image credit: Anton_Ivanov | Shutterstock
By Lorraine Vilela
Journalist
