FRIDA KAHLO PORTRAIT

EMPOWERING MEXICAN PAINTER

Born Magdalena Carmen Frida Kahlo Calderón, Frida Kahlo, was born July 6, 1907, in Mexico City, Mexico. At the age of eighteen, she suffered a traumatic car accident that secured a lifetime of pain & suffering through no less than thirty-two surgeries, & it took away her ability to reproduce.. Struggling with these physical limitations, she also endured a tumultuous marriage to fellow Mexican artist Diego Rivera & spent the remaining few years of her life painting from her bed. She is known as a very influential artist, for her role in Mexican American Civil Rights (as well as the Mexican Communist Party) & being a strong female role model. Her home, Blue House, is a tourist destination.

Plagued by her poor health, Kahlo used her art to show her struggles & true beauty as a strong female role model. Many artists from her time labeled her work Surrealist, a term which she argued was not accurate, in that her art wasn’t a dream but her reality. Plagued by a bad relationship & marriage, alongside her physical issues, Kahlo painted beautiful images & her dramatic commentary still empowers women, long after her early death. Her images are full of symbolism, vibrant color, & have an overall powerful and empowering female message.