S.Kabangai- Frida Kahlo

Frida Kahlo de Rivera was a Mexican painter, born in Coyoacán. Kahlo was born on July 6, 1907 and she died on July 13, 1954. Frida Kahlo was best know for her self portraits and her paintings were loved by people because they expressed a lot of pain and passion in them. She was one of the great painters that came from Mexico and her work is celebrated every year.

Frida was one of four daughters born to a Hungarian-Jewish father and a mother of Spanish and Mexican Indian descent. Frida Kahlo did not want to become a painter, she was a survivor of a diseases called polio and at the age of 18 she was seriously injured in a bus accident, it took Frida Kahlo a year to recover from the accident, she started to paint while she was recovering from her accident. Her paintings, mostly self-portraits and still life, were deliberately naïve, and filled with the colors and forms of Mexican folk art. At 22 she married the famous Mexican muralist Diego Rivera, they were married for 20 years.Their stormy, passionate relationship survived infidelities, the pressures of careers, divorce, remarriage, Frida's bi-sexual affairs, her poor health and her inability to have children. Frida once said:"I suffered two grave accidents in my life…One in which a streetcar knocked me down and the other was Diego." Frida Kahlo has many famous paintings and most of those of here famous paintings were the self portraits that expressed all the pain that she went through in her life time.

During her lifetime, Frida created some 200 paintings, drawings and sketches related to her experiences in life, physical and emotional pain and her turbulent relationship with Diego. She produced 143 paintings, 55 of which are self-portraits. When asked why she painted so many self-portraits, Frida replied: "Because I am so often alone....because I am the subject I know best." Today, more than half a century after her death, her paintings fetch more money than any other female artist. A visit to the Museo Frida Kahlo is like taking a step back in time.