People
Frida Kahlo Biography, Paintings, Artworks and Costumes, Husband and Family
Many people who lived and walked the earth at the time Frida Kahlo did the same have long been forgotten and seldom remembered even in history but for her unparalleled talent and works of art, paintings and impressive costumes, Frida still lives among us as her heirlooms are still highly sought after and well preserved in modern times.
Frida Kahlo breathed her more than half a century ago, however, in this article we will guide you through the moments and events of her life, her paintings, her works of art and her unique costumes without forgetting who she married and the dramas in it.
Biography of Frida Kahlo
Frida Kahlo was born on July 6, 1907 and named Magdalena Carmen Frida Kahlo y Calderón in Coyocoan, Mexico City, Mexico to her father; a professional photographer of Hungarian and German descent and his half-American, half-Spanish wife Matilde. Frida had three sisters; two older and one younger.
Growing up, at the age of 6, she had polioce which caused her to be bedridden for 9 months, which severely impaired the growth of her right leg and foot; they were thinner and made him limp while walking. Life, however, went on for little Khalo as normal as possible.
She was educated at the National Preparatory School in Mexico City (from 1922) where she became famous for her outspokenness and bravery. With such innate qualities in her, Frida Khalo soon joined a student political movement where she met and fell in love with group leader Alejandro Gomez Arias. On one occasion (in 1925), while she was traveling with him, their bus was involved in a fatal accident which caused serious injuries to Frida. She had to go through a slow and painful recovery and it was then that she began to teach herself how to paint.
As she recovered, she became increasingly active and soon joined the Communist Party of Mexico (PCM). It was during this evening that she met her tumultuous future husband Diego Rivera (for the second time) to whom she showed her paintings and earned her encouragement for her good works.
Family: husband
Frida Kahlo had originally met Diego Rivera at the National Preparatory School in Mexico City where he was working on a mural called “The Creation.” She often looked at it and not only fell in love with the work but also with the artist himself; Reportedly, she once told her friend that she would one day marry Diego Rivera.
They met again in 1928, during which Frida Kahloask the most experienced artist – Diego to evaluate her works. It happened at this meeting that they both liked each other and quickly started a romantic relationship. The following year, they were already husband and wife despite her mother’s objection. Due to her husband’s profession, they moved to San Francisco (1930), New York (1931), and Detroit (in 1933).
After Diego’s work in America, they returned to Mexico and lived in San Angel, Mexico. Around this time, the love between them began to wane when Frida grew tired of Diego’s promiscuity, even to the point that he had an affair with one of his sisters. They broke up several times but found each other just as often. Even when they officially divorced in 1939, by 1940 they were back in the public eye at least as husband and wife, although they began seeing other people separately. Their house then consisted of separate individual living spaces connected to each other by a bridge.
Paintings, artworks and costumes
Every true artist remembers her works when they are long gone, for Frida Kahlo not only is she remembered but she is also celebrated in this generation and probably generations to come.
Frida lived a life devoted to art, many of her works were self-portraits most of which had surreal qualities that a restless mind would find extremely difficult to wrap her head around. Yet, to deep minds who saw his works then and even now, the message the writer was trying to convey in the colors and shades was clear.
Some of her notable paintings include Frieda and Diego Rivera (1931), shown at the 6th Annual Exhibition of the San Francisco Society of Women Artists. The next was Henry Ford Hospital (1932) which depicted her second miscarriage, The Suicide of Dorothy Hale (1939) as a gift to Hale’s bereaved mother, The Two Fridas (1939) where she portrayed the unloved and loved versions of ‘herself. She told the story of her physical challenges with The Broken Column (1944) which showed her broken spine and the unsuccessful medical procedures she underwent to fix them.
Likewise, like any artist who had a huge following in her day and even now, Frida created a sense of fashion that has refused to die out rather than even being valued and celebrated now. More than half a century after his death, his clothes were discovered locked in a storage room. She often wore Tehuantepec matriarchal embroidered dresses from Mexico worn by women; she wore long skirts and corset-style tops and blouses to hide her many surgical scars while her boots were often brightly colored and mostly pink. From her self-portraits and photos, Frida was also known for adding flowers to her hair and had beautiful jewelry as part of her costume.
The death of Frida Kahlo
Unfortunately, death comes in the saddest of circumstances, and Frida did not live to be very old. She underwent a bone graft in 1950 which unfortunately got infected and left her bedridden most of the time. As much as she could, she used squats and a wheelchair to get around whenever her strength allowed, but slowly her health degenerated. In August 1953, her right leg was amputated at the knee, her health deteriorated and, even worse, her husband’s countless loves did not help either. In her final days, she began drawing skeletons and angels in her journal while she was bedridden with bronchopneumonia.
Her last drawing was a black angel with the words “I joyfully await the release – and hope never to return – Frida.” On July 13, 1954, at age 47, after a high fever, her nurse found her dead on her bed. On July 15, 1954, his funeral was held at Panteón Civil de Dolores. Her husband designed the Frida Kahlo Museum in her honor and opened it in 1958, a year after her death in 1957.
