Who Is Frida Kahlo? About the Artist’s Biography

Abstract

Magdalena Carmen Frida Kahlo y Calderón (1907-1954) was daughter of Guillermo, a Hungrian Jew, and Matilde, a Mexican woman of Spanish-Amerindian ancestry. She was educated in the prestigious Escuela Nacional Preparatoria in the spirit of post-revolution nationalism. She identified herself with Mexico’s natives, fighting for their rights as a member of the Communist Party. This happened as a result of her prior entering the circles of artistic bohemia of the 1920’s and the 1930’s.

As a teenager, Frida showed keen interest in biology and she planned a medical career, but her plans were ruined by an accident she was involved in at the age of 18. She was going home from school when her bus collided with another vehicle. She suffered severe injuries. Kahlo frequently maintained that during a long period of rehabilitation, when she was bedridden, she started painting. She was depicting the world around her, family and friends. However, her main focus was on herself and her body, which were her source of inspiration. She produced about fifty self-portraits.

Kahlo used to say that she went through two tragedies in life: the accident and Diego Rivera. Rivera was a great Mexican muralist and Kahlo was twice married to him. Despite his chronic tendency to cheat on her (actually both of them were cheaters: Frida is also known for her numerous romantic affairs with women and men, e.g. for her engagement with Leon Trotsky), she loved him obsessively. It was thanks to him that Frida grew as a woman, a proud Mexican and a painter, who reached for international success. Her works were displayed in the United States and Europe. The volatile relationship of the two artists, their burning affection and numerous disappointments were oftentimes represented in Frida’s painted visions. Another artistic motif was her struggle with illness, her great and overwhelming pain caused by the accident and infertility.

Taking all the above into consideration, one has to realize the importance of Kahlo’s diary for any analysis of her work and life. It contains all the elements that are to be found in her biography and her art. Nonetheless, the diary has a formal organization that is evidently distinct from her paintings, since it combines the visual with the verbal. The diary she ran for the last twelve years of her life is perhaps the most intriguing, but at the same time, the least known of Kahlo’s masterpieces.