This Celebrated Mexican Painter Is Known for a Naãƒâ¯ve Folk Art Style
Painter Frida Kahlo was a Mexican artist who was married to Diego Rivera and is still admired as a feminist icon.
Who Was Frida Kahlo?
Artist Frida Kahlo was considered one of Mexico's greatest artists who began painting mostly self-portraits later she was severely injured in a charabanc blow. Kahlo after became politically active and married fellow communist creative person Diego Rivera in 1929. She exhibited her paintings in Paris and Mexico before her death in 1954.
Family unit, Education and Early Life
Kahlo was born Magdalena Carmen Frieda Kahlo y Calderón on July 6, 1907, in Coyoacán, Mexico City, United mexican states.
Kahlo'due south father, Wilhelm (too called Guillermo), was a German photographer who had immigrated to Mexico where he met and married her female parent Matilde. She had ii older sisters, Matilde and Adriana, and her younger sister, Cristina, was born the year after Kahlo.
Effectually the age of six, Kahlo contracted polio, which caused her to be bedridden for nine months. While she recovered from the illness, she limped when she walked because the illness had damaged her correct leg and foot. Her begetter encouraged her to play soccer, go swimming, and even wrestle — highly unusual moves for a girl at the time — to help assistance in her recovery.
In 1922, Kahlo enrolled at the renowned National Preparatory School. She was i of the few female students to attend the schoolhouse, and she became known for her jovial spirit and her love of colorful, traditional clothes and jewelry.
While at school, Kahlo hung out with a group of politically and intellectually agreeing students. Becoming more politically active, Kahlo joined the Young Communist League and the Mexican Communist Party.
Frida Kahlo's Accident
On September 17, 1925, Kahlo and Alejandro Gómez Arias, a school friend with whom she was romantically involved, were traveling together on a bus when the vehicle collided with a streetcar. As a result of the collision, Kahlo was impaled by a steel handrail, which went into her hip and came out the other side. She suffered several serious injuries as a result, including fractures in her spine and pelvis.
After staying at the Carmine Cross Hospital in Mexico City for several weeks, Kahlo returned home to recuperate farther. She began painting during her recovery and finished her first cocky-portrait the following yr, which she gave to Gómez Arias.
Frida Kahlo'south Marriage to Diego Rivera
In 1929, Kahlo and famed Mexican muralist Diego Rivera married. Kahlo and Rivera first met in 1922 when he went to work on a project at her loftier school. Kahlo oftentimes watched every bit Rivera created a mural called The Creation in the schoolhouse'south lecture hall. According to some reports, she told a friend that she would someday take Rivera's baby.
Kahlo reconnected with Rivera in 1928. He encouraged her artwork, and the two began a relationship. During their early years together, Kahlo often followed Rivera based on where the commissions that Rivera received were. In 1930, they lived in San Francisco, California. They then went to New York Urban center for Rivera'due south evidence at the Museum of Modern Art and later moved to Detroit for Rivera'due south committee with the Detroit Establish of Arts.
Kahlo and Rivera's time in New York City in 1933 was surrounded by controversy. Commissioned by Nelson Rockefeller, Rivera created a mural entitled Man at the Crossroadsin the RCA Building at Rockefeller Middle. Rockefeller halted the piece of work on the project later Rivera included a portrait of communist leader Vladimir Lenin in the mural, which was later painted over. Months after this incident, the couple returned to Mexico and went to live in San Angel, Mexico.
Never a traditional union, Kahlo and Rivera kept divide, just bordering homes and studios in San Angel. She was saddened past his many infidelities, including an affair with her sis Cristina. In response to this familial betrayal, Kahlo cut off almost of her trademark long night pilus. Badly wanting to have a child, she again experienced heartbreak when she miscarried in 1934.
Kahlo and Rivera went through periods of separation, but they joined together to assist exiled Soviet communist Leon Trotsky and his wife Natalia in 1937. The Trotskys came to stay with them at the Blue Business firm (Kahlo's childhood home) for a time in 1937 as Trotsky had received asylum in Mexico. Once a rival of Soviet leader Joseph Stalin, Trotsky feared that he would be assassinated by his old nemesis. Kahlo and Trotsky reportedly had a brief affair during this time.
Kahlo divorced Rivera in 1939. They did not stay divorced for long, remarrying in 1940. The couple continued to lead largely separate lives, both becoming involved with other people over the years.
PHOTOS: Frida Kahlo and Diego Rivera'due south Colorful Love Story
Creative Career
While she never considered herself a surrealist, Kahlo befriended one of the primary figures in that artistic and literary movement, Andre Breton, in 1938. That same year, she had a major exhibition at a New York City gallery, selling near half of the 25 paintings shown there. Kahlo likewise received 2 commissions, including 1 from famed magazine editor Clare Boothe Luce, as a result of the evidence.
In 1939, Kahlo went to live in Paris for a time. There she exhibited some of her paintings and developed friendships with such artists as Marcel Duchamp and Pablo Picasso.
Kahlo received a commission from the Mexican government for 5 portraits of of import Mexican women in 1941, only she was unable to finish the projection. She lost her dear begetter that year and continued to suffer from chronic wellness bug. Despite her personal challenges, her work continued to grow in popularity and was included in numerous grouping shows around this fourth dimension.
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In 1953, Kahlo received her first solo exhibition in United mexican states. While bedridden at the time, Kahlo did not miss out on the exhibition's opening. Arriving by ambulance, Kahlo spent the evening talking and celebrating with the event's attendees from the comfort of a four-poster bed set up up in the gallery simply for her.
Afterwards Kahlo's death, the feminist move of the 1970s led to renewed interest in her life and work, as Kahlo was viewed past many as an icon of female creativity.
Frida Kahlo's Most Famous Paintings
Many of Kahlo'south works were self-portraits. A few of her most notable paintings include:
'Frieda and Diego Rivera' (1931)
Kahlo showed this painting at the Sixth Annual Exhibition of the San Francisco Society of Women Artists, the city where she was living with Rivera at the time. In the piece of work, painted two years after the couple married, Kahlo lightly holds Rivera's hand as he grasps a palette and paintbrushes with the other — a stiffly formal pose hinting at the couple'south futurity tumultuous relationship. The work at present lives at the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art.
'Henry Ford Infirmary' (1932)
In 1932, Kahlo incorporated graphic and surrealistic elements in her piece of work. In this painting, a naked Kahlo appears on a infirmary bed with several items — a fetus, a snail, a flower, a pelvis and others — floating effectually her and continued to her by red, veinlike strings. Equally with her earlier self-portraits, the work was deeply personal, telling the story of her second miscarriage.
'The Suicide of Dorothy Unhurt' (1939)
Kahlo was asked to paint a portrait of Luce and Kahlo'southward mutual friend, actress Dorothy Unhurt, who had committed suicide before that yr by jumping from a high-rise building. The painting was intended as a gift for Unhurt's grieving female parent. Rather than a traditional portrait, yet, Kahlo painted the story of Hale'south tragic leap. While the work has been heralded past critics, its patron was horrified at the finished painting.
'The Two Fridas' (1939)
One of Kahlo'south well-nigh famous works, the painting shows two versions of the artist sitting side by side, with both of their hearts exposed. One Frida is dressed nearly all in white and has a damaged centre and spots of blood on her clothing. The other wears bold colored clothing and has an intact centre. These figures are believed to represent "unloved" and "loved" versions of Kahlo.
'The Cleaved Cavalcade' (1944)
Kahlo shared her physical challenges through her art again with this painting, which depicted a nearly nude Kahlo split downwardly the heart, revealing her spine as a shattered decorative cavalcade. She too wears a surgical caryatid and her skin is studded with tacks or nails. Around this fourth dimension, Kahlo had several surgeries and wore special corsets to try to fix her back. She would continue to seek a diversity of treatments for her chronic concrete pain with little success.
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Frida Kahlo'southward Expiry
Almost a calendar week later her 47th birthday, Kahlo died on July thirteen, 1954, at her beloved Blueish House. There has been some speculation regarding the nature of her decease. It was reported to exist acquired by a pulmonary embolism, just in that location have likewise been stories most a possible suicide.
Kahlo's wellness issues became nearly all-consuming in 1950. After beingness diagnosed with gangrene in her right foot, Kahlo spent nine months in the infirmary and had several operations during this time. She continued to paint and support political causes despite having express mobility. In 1953, function of Kahlo's correct leg was amputated to stop the spread of gangrene.
Deeply depressed, Kahlo was hospitalized again in April 1954 because of poor wellness, or, as some reports indicated, a suicide attempt. She returned to the infirmary 2 months later with bronchial pneumonia. No thing her concrete condition, Kahlo did not allow that stand in the way of her political activism. Her final public appearance was a sit-in against the U.S.-backed overthrow of President Jacobo Arbenz of Guatemala on July 2nd.
Moving-picture show on Frida Kahlo
Kahlo's life was the subject field of a 2002 pic entitled Frida, starring Salma Hayek every bit the artist and Alfred Molina as Rivera. Directed by Julie Taymor, the film was nominated for six Academy Awards and won for Best Makeup and Original Score.
Frida Kahlo Museum
The family abode where Kahlo was born and grew up, later referred to as the Blueish House or Casa Azul, was opened as a museum in 1958. Located in Coyoacán, Mexico City, the Museo Frida Kahlo houses artifacts from the artist along with important works including Viva la Vida (1954), Frida and Caesarean (1931) and Portrait of my father Wilhelm Kahlo (1952).
Book on Frida Kahlo
Hayden Herrera'due south 1983 volume on Kahlo, Frida: A Biography of Frida Kahlo, helped to stir upwardly interest in the artist. The biographical piece of work covers Kahlo's childhood, blow, artistic career, marriage to Diego Rivera, association with the communist party and love affairs.
Source: https://www.biography.com/artist/frida-kahlo
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