Frida Kahlo
Frida Kahlo
Frida Kahlo de Rivera (July 6, 1907 – July 13, 1954; born Magdalena Carmen Frieda Kahlo y Calderón) was a Mexican painter, born in Coyoacán. Perhaps best known for her self-portraits, Kahlo’s work is remembered for its “pain and passion”, and its intense, vibrant colors. Her work has been celebrated in Mexico as emblematic of national and indigenous tradition, and by feminists for its uncompromising depiction of the female experience and form.
Kahlo had a stormy but passionate marriage with the prominent Mexican artist Diego Rivera. She suffered lifelong health problems, many of which stemmed from a traffic accident in her teenage years.
Frida Kahlo was born on July 6, 1907 in the house of her parents, known as La Casa Azul (The Blue House), in Coyoacán. At the time, it was a small town on the outskirts of Mexico City.
Her father, Guillermo Kahlo (1871–1941), was born Carl Wilhelm Kahlo in Pforzheim, Germany, the son of Henriette Kaufmann and Jakob Heinrich Kahlo. While Frida herself maintained that her father was of Hungarian-Jewish ancestry, one set of researchers have established that Guillermo Kahlo’s parents were not Jewish but Lutheran Germans. Carl Wilhelm Kahlo sailed to Mexico in 1891 at the age of nineteen and, upon his arrival, changed his German forename, Wilhelm, to its Spanish equivalent, ‘Guillermo’.
Frida’s mother, Matilde Calderón y Gonzalez, was a devout Catholic of primarily indigenous, as well as Spanish, descent. Frida’s parents were married shortly after the death of Guillermo’s first wife during the birth of her second child. Although their marriage was quite unhappy, Guillermo and Matilde had four daughters, with Frida being the third. She had two older half sisters. Frida remarked that she grew up in a world surrounded by females. Throughout most of her life, however, Frida remained close to her father. The actress, writer and singer Dulce María is her great grand-niece.
The Mexican Revolution began in 1910 when Kahlo was three. Later Kahlo claimed that she was born in 1910 so people would directly associate her with the revolution. In her writings, she recalled that her mother would usher her and her sisters inside the house as gunfire echoed in the streets of her hometown. Occasionally, men would leap over the walls into their backyard and sometimes her mother would prepare a meal for the hungry revolutionaries.
Kahlo contracted polio at age six, which left her right leg thinner than the left, which Kahlo disguised by wearing long, colorful skirts. It has been conjectured that she also suffered from spina bifida, a congenital disease that could have affected both spinal and leg development. As a girl, she participated in boxing and other sports. In 1922, Kahlo was enrolled in the Preparatoria, one of Mexico’s premier schools, where she was one of only thirty-five girls. Kahlo joined a clique at the school and fell in love with the leader, Alejandro Gomez Arias. During this period, Kahlo also witnessed violent armed struggles in the streets of Mexico City as the Mexican Revolution continued.
On September 17, 1925, Kahlo was riding in a bus when the vehicle collided with a trolley car. She suffered serious injuries in the accident, including a broken spinal column, a broken collarbone, broken ribs, a broken pelvis, eleven fractures in her right leg, a crushed and dislocated right foot, and a dislocated shoulder. An iron handrail pierced her abdomen and her uterus, which seriously damaged her reproductive ability.
Although she recovered from her injuries and eventually regained her ability to walk, she was plagued by relapses of extreme pain for the remainder of her life. The pain was intense and often left her confined to a hospital or bedridden for months at a time. She underwent as many as thirty-five operations as a result of the accident, mainly on her back, her right leg and her right foot.
Self portrait, 1926
Oil on canvas, 79 x 58 cm
Private collection ▼
Self portrait, 1940
Oil on canvas, 62 x 47.7 cm
Harry Ransom Humanities Research Center
University of Texas, Austin, TX, USA ▼
Self portrait, 1929
Oil on masonite, 79.4 x 70 cm
Private collection ▼
Portrait of Virginia (Nina), 1929
Oil on Masonite, 83.8 x 68 cm
Dolores Olmedo Foundation
Mexico City, Mexico ▼
Two women, 1929
Oil on canvas, 69.3 x 53.3
Private collection ▼
The bus, 1929
Oil on canvas, 26 x 56 cm
Dolores Olmedo Foundation, Mexico City, Mexico ▼
Self portrait, 1930
Oil on canvas, 66 x 56 cm
Private collection ▼
Frida and Diego Rivera, 1931
Oil on canvas, 99 x 78.7 cm
San Francisco Museum of Modern Art
San Francisco, CA, USA ▼
Portrait of Eva Frederick, 1931
Oil on canvas, 62.9 x 47 cm
Dolores Olmedo Foundation
Mexico City, Mexico ▼
Luther Burbank, 1931
Oil on Masonite, 88 x 62 cm
Dolores Olmedo Foundation
Mexico City, Mexico ▼
Henry Ford Hospital, 1932
Oil on metal, 31.1 x 39.3 cm
Dolores Olmedo Foundation, Mexico City, Mexico ▼
My birth, 1932
Oil on metal, 31 x 35 cm
Private collection ▼
Self portrait on the border line between Mexico and the United States, 1932
Oil on metal 31.7 x 35 cm
Private collection ▼
My dress hangs there, 1933
Oil and collage on masonite
45.8 x 50.2 cm
Private collection ▼
Self portrait, 1933
Oil on metal, 34.3 x 29.2 cm
Private collection ▼
A few small nips, 1935
Oil on metal, 38 x 48.2 cm
Dolores Olmedo Foundation
Mexico City, Mexico ▼
My Grandparents, my Parents, and I, 1936
Oil and tempera on metal panel, 30.5 x 35 cm
The Museum of Modern Arts
New York, NY, USA ▼
My nurse and I, 1937
Oil on metal, 29.8 x 34.9 cm
Dolores Olmedo Foundation
Mexico City, Mexico ▼
Self portrait (Dedicated to Leon Trotsky), 1937
Oil on masonite, 76.2 x 61 cm
National Museum of Women in the Arts
Washington, D.C., USA ▼
Me and my doll, 1937
Oil on metal, 40 x 32 cm
Private collection ▼
Memory, 1937
Oil on metal, 38 x 48.2 cm
Dolores Olmedo Foundation
Mexico City, Mexico ▼
Portrait of Diego Rivera, 1937
Oil on wood, 461 x 31.7 cm
Private collection ▼
The frame, 1937
Oil on metal with glass, 29 x 21.5 cm
Musée National d’Art Moderne
Centre Georges Pompidou, Paris, France ▼
Fulang-Chang and I, 1937
Oil on composition board, 40 x 28 cm
The Museum of Modern Arts
New York, NY, USA ▼
What the water gave me, 1937
Oil on canvas, 96.5 x 76.2 c
Private collection ▼
Itzcuintli dog with me, 1938
Oil on canvas, 28 x 20 cm
Private collection ▼
Self portrait with monkey, 1938
Oil on masonite, 40 x 30 cm
Albright-Knox Art Gallery
Buffalo, NY, USA ▼
Four inhabitants of Mexico, 1938
Oil on wood panel, 31.1 x 47.6 cm
Private collection ▼
Girl with death mask, 1938
Oil on metal, 19.8 x 14.7 cm
Private collection ▼
Fruits of the Earth, 1938
Oil on Masonite, 34.5 x 60 cm
Collection of the Banco Nacional de Nexico
Fomento Cultural Banamex, Mexico City ▼
Tunas (Still life with prickly pear fruit), 1938
Oil on masonite ▼
Pitahayas, 1938
Oil on metal, 25.5 x 35.5 cm
Madison Art Center, Madison
Wisconsin, USA ▼
Two nudes in the forest, 1939
Oil on sheet metal, 25 x 30 cm
Private collection ▼
The two Fridas, 1938
Oil on canvas, 170 x 170 cm
Museo de Arte Moderno
Mexico City, Mexico ▼
The suicide of Dorothy Hale, 1939
Oil on masonite, 60.4 x 48.6 cm
The Phoenix Art Museum
Phoenix, AZ, USA ▼
The dream, 1940
Oil on canvas, 74 x 98.5 cm
Private collection ▼
Self portrait, 1940
Oil on Masonite, 59.8 x 40 cm
Private collection ▼
Self portrait, 1940
Oil on Masonite, 61 x 43 cm
Private collection ▼
Self portrait with monkey, 1940
Oil on Masonite, 53.2 x 42.6 cm
Private collection ▼
Self portrait with cropped hair, 1940
Oil on canvas 40 x 28 cm
The Museum of Modern Arts
New York, NY, USA ▼
Self portrait with Bonito, 1941
Oil on canvas, 55 x 43.5 cm
Private collection ▼
Self portrait with Braid, 1941
Private collection ▼
Me and my parrots, 1941
Oil on canvas, 81 x 62.2 cm
Private collection ▼
Portrait of Marucha Lavin, 1942
Oil on copper, 65 cm diameter
Private collection ▼
Thinking about death, 1943
Oil on canvas mounted on Masonite, 45 x 36.8 cm
Dolores Olmedo Foundation
Mexico City, Mexico ▼
Self portrait as a Tehuana, 1943
Oil on masonite, Private collection ▼
Self portrait with monkeys, 1943
Oil on canvas, 81 x 35 cm
Private collection ▼
The bride frightened at seeing life opened, 1943
Oil on canvas, 63 x 81.3 cm
Private collection ▼
Dona Rosita Morillo, 1944
Oil on canvas, mounted on masonite, 77.4 x 72.4 cm
Dolores Olmedo Foundation
Mexico City, Mexico ▼
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Flower of life, 1944
Oil on mesonite, 29.5 x 23 cm
Dolores Olmedo Foundation
Mexico City, Mexico ▼
The broken column, 1944
Oil on masonite, 38.6 x 31 cm
Dolores Olmedo Foundation
Mexico City, Mexico ▼
Self portrait with small monkey, 1945
Oil on Masonite, 56 x 41.1 cm
Dolores Olmedo Foundation
Mexico City, Mexico ▼
Without hope, 1945
Oil on canvas mounted on Masonite, 28 x 36 cm
Dolores Olmedo Foundation
Mexico City, Mexico ▼
Moses, 1945
Oil on Masonite, 94 x 50.8 cm
Private collection ▼
The little deer, 1946
Oil on masonite, 22.5 x 30 cm
Private collection ▼
Tree of hope, 1946
Oil on masonite, 55.8 x 40.7 cm
Private collection ▼
Self portrait with loose hair, 1947
Oil on masonite, 61 x 45 cm
Private collection ▼
Sun and life, 1947
Oil on Masonite, 40 x 49.5 cm
Private collection ▼
Diego and I, 1949
Oil on Masonite, 29.5 x 22.5 cm
Private collection ▼
The love embrace of the Universe, the Earth (Mexico), Diego, Me, and senor Xolotl, 1949
Oil on canvas, 69.8 x 60.6 cm
Private collection ▼
Portrait of Don Guillermo Kahlo, 1951
Oil on masonite, 60.4 x 46.4 cm
Frida Kahlo Museum
Mexico City, Mexico ▼
Self portrait with the portrait of doctor Farill, 1951
Oil on masonite, 41.8 x 50.2 cm
Private collection ▼
Still life with parrot, 1951
Oil on canvas, 25.4 x 28.9 cm
Harry Ransom Humanities Research Center
University of Texas, Austin, TX, USA ▼
Naturaleza viva, 1952
Oil on canvas, Private collection ▼
Fruit of life, 1954
Oil on masonite, 45 x 62 cm
Private collection ▼
Viva la vida, 1954
Oil on masonite, 59 x 50.7 cm
Frida Kahlo Museum
Mexico City, Mexico ▼
