In her cultural persona, Frida extended the history of Mexico into her art, thus building a patrimony of cultural ideals, artistic techniques, and social values that are today important for her country and the art she created. Frida Kahlo was born in 1907, three years before the Mexican revolution exploded.

Frida Kahlo was a contemporary artist, even by today’s standards. Her multidisciplinary art practice was a predecessor to today’s public relations creation of celebrity.

Diego Rivera

Her works are exhibited there and she is befriended with artists such as Marc Chagall, Piet Mondrian, and Pablo Picasso. She and Rivera got divorced that year and she painted one of her most famous paintings, The Two Fridas(1939). But soon Frida Kahlo and Diego Rivera remarried in 1940.

She was bisexual and did not conform to traditional gender roles. She’s admired today as a feminist icon. Frida Kahlo, born Magdalena Carmen Frida Kahlo y Calderón was a Mexican painter associated with the Surrealism and Magic Realism movements as well as Mexacayotl, a Mexican identity movement.

Frida is crushed and knocked unconscious, covered in blood and gold dust spraying out from a cone carried by another passenger. It’s an arresting setpiece, and, though it looks like a heavy-handed piece of artistic licence, it’s accurate.

In 1953, Kahlo’s bed is carried from her home to a museum so she can attend her first solo exhibition in her native country. The film ends with a sequence of Kahlo sleeping in her bed as it is consumed by flames. She slowly smiles as the screen fades into a painting of the fire.

47 years (1907–1954)

Works of Frida Kahlo Frida Kahlo is most known for her self-portraits. Her works show pain and suffering, but also her resilience. She was an independent woman, artist, and an inspiration. Much of her work is at the Frida Kahlo Museum which opened in 1958 in her former residence.

During the same year as her exhibition, Frida had to have her right leg amputated below the knee due to a gangrene infection. This caused her to become deeply depressed and suicidal. She attempted suicide a couple of times. On July 3, 1954, Frida died.

Forgiveness Few others could forgive such transgressions as Frida Kahlo did. Her beloved sister and the husband she worshipped had an affair, and discovering it nearly broke her heart. After some time away from her husband, she forgave his betrayal.

Frida Kahlo as photographed by her father, Guillermo Kahlo (1872-1941) in 1926 at about age 19. This was taken after Frida’s horrific bus accident. family photo, Frida appears androgynous, flouting convention by wearing a man’s suit and slicking back her hair. She was quite the rebel.

Diego was 42 years old, 6’1″ tall, and 300 pounds; Frida was 22, 5’3″ tall and only 98 pounds.

Taymor’s movie is based on Hayden Herrera’s 1983 biography Frida, which rescued Kahlo from obscurity and helped transform her into a neo-feminist icon. One of the most impressive things about the film is that the actors really resemble their real-life counterparts.

But then I realized, Frida Kahlo’s first language was not Spanish. It was a visual language. So we needed a director that could make the language of the film’s visuals stronger than the words.

Days before her death Frida attends a protest against CIA intervention in Guatemala. Frida dies on July 13 of a pulmonary embolism at the Blue House. Her body lies in state at the Palace of Fine Arts and crowds of admirers come to pay their final farewell to the artist. She is cremated a few days later.

Deceased (1907–1954)

Deceased (1886–1957)