Frida her paintings. Frida Kahlo is the most famous Mexican artist.


Frida Kahlo (Kahlo Frida), Mexican artist and graphic artist, wife of Diego Rivera, master of surrealism. Frida Kahlo was born in Mexico City in 1907, in the family of a Jewish photographer, originally from Germany. Mother is Spanish, born in America. At the age of six, she suffered from polio, and since then her right leg has become shorter and thinner than her left. At the age of eighteen, on September 17, 1925, Kahlo was in a car accident: a broken iron bar of a tram current collector stuck in her stomach and came out in her groin, crushing her hip bone. The spine was damaged in three places, two hips and a leg were broken in eleven places. Doctors could not vouch for her life. The painful months of immobile inactivity began. It was at this time that Kahlo asked her father for a brush and paints. A special stretcher was made for Frida Kahlo, which allowed her to write lying down. A large mirror was attached under the canopy of the bed so that Frida Kahlo could see herself. She started with self-portraits. I write myself because I spend a lot of time alone and because I am the subject that I know best.

In 1929, Frida Kahlo entered the National Institute of Mexico. For a year spent almost in complete immobility, Kahlo became seriously interested in painting. Starting to walk again, she attended art school and in 1928 joined the Communist Party. Her work was highly appreciated by the already famous communist artist Diego Rivera.

At 22, Frida Kahlo married him. Their family life was seething with passions. They could not always be together, but never apart. They had a relationship - passionate, obsessed and sometimes painful. An ancient sage said about such relationships: It is impossible to live neither with you nor without you. Frida Kahlo's relationship with Trotsky is fanned with a romantic halo. The Mexican artist admired the tribune of the Russian revolution, was very upset by his expulsion from the USSR and was happy that thanks to Diego Rivera he found shelter in Mexico City. Most of all in life, Frida Kahlo loved life itself - and this attracted men and women to her like a magnet. Despite the excruciating physical suffering, she could have fun from the heart and go wild. But the damaged spine constantly reminded of itself. From time to time, Frida Kahlo had to go to the hospital, almost constantly wearing special corsets. In 1950, she underwent 7 operations on her spine, she spent 9 months in a hospital bed, after which she could only move in a wheelchair.

In 1952, Frida Kahlo's right leg was amputated to the knee. In 1953, Frida Kahlo's first solo exhibition was held in Mexico City. Frida Kahlo does not smile in any self-portrait: a serious, even mournful face, fused thick eyebrows, a slightly noticeable mustache over tightly compressed sensual lips. The ideas of her paintings are encrypted in the details, the background, the figures that appear next to Frida. The symbolism of Kahlo is based on national traditions and is closely connected with the Indian mythology of the pre-Hispanic period. Frida Kahlo knew the history of her homeland brilliantly. Many authentic monuments of ancient culture, which Diego Rivera and Frida Kahlo collected all their lives, are located in the garden of the Blue House (museum house). Frida Kahlo died of pneumonia, a week after she celebrated her 47th birthday, on July 13, 1954. Farewell to Frida Kahlo took place in Bellas Artes - the Palace of Fine Arts. On their last journey, Frida, along with Diego Rivera, was seen off by Mexican President Lazaro Cardenas, artists, writers - Siqueiros, Emma Hurtado, Victor Manuel Villaseñor and other famous figures of Mexico.

What are Frida Kahlo's "selfies" hiding?

Thursday, May 30, 2017

Frida Kahlo(07/06/1907 - 07/13/1954) - Mexican artist, known for her self-portraits. During her life, she wrote 55 self-portraits, which is an absolute record (for which Frida is jokingly called a "selfie lover"). The art style is naive art (or folk art) and surrealism. Frida herself did not consider herself a surrealist: "I never paint dreams or nightmares. I paint my reality" . The artist's paintings are a kind of diary that tells about her life and feelings.

The painting is called “My grandparents, my parents and me”, 1936.

Thursday, May 30, 2017

Yes, it was thanks to these people that the talented and shocking Frida Kahlo was born. Her sky-blue ancestral home, located in Mexico City, is now a museum where you can get acquainted with the work and difficult life of the artist. Please note that in this picture, Frida depicts herself as a girl of about six years old, and her right leg is partially covered by a tree, which visually makes her left. In fact, this is no accident. It was at this age that the artist contracted polio, which left her with a limp. and her right leg became much thinner than the left (Kalo hid this flaw under long skirts). Peers teased her "Frida is a wooden leg." The artist already then showed her strong-willed character and love of life - she was engaged in boxing, swimming, playing football with the guys.

"Broken Column", 1944

Thursday, May 30, 2017

Broken column, instead of a spine. Nails piercing the body. Tears on eyes. A fatal event that affected the whole life of the artist.

It was September 1925 outside. Frida was then 18 years old. She and a friend were on the bus, cheerfully discussing plans for the future, when the collision happened. The bus driver lost control and crashed into a tram. The artist received serious injuries: fractures of the spine, ribs, collarbone, her right leg was broken in eleven places. Moreover, the metal handrail pierced the artist's stomach and uterus, which affected her reproductive function.

Frida underwent dozens of surgeries and was bedridden for months. Pain, longing and loneliness prompted me to paint (Frida studied medicine at one of the best schools in Mexico, where she first saw her future husband, Diego Rivera, who worked on the "Creation" painting at this school). So her father made a stretcher. so that the young artist could paint lying down.

"Self-portrait in a velvet dress", 1926

Thursday, May 30, 2017

Self-portrait is the first painting by Kahlo. In the future, she began to develop precisely this direction. "I write myself because I spend a lot of time alone and because I am the subject that I know best."

"Diego in Mind", 1943

Thursday, May 30, 2017

Having recovered a little after the accident, Frida decided to show her work to the famous artist Diego Rivera. He appreciated, saying about Frida "an artist from birth, unusually sensitive and capable of observation." This was the beginning of their romance. At that time, Diego divorced his second wife and became interested in the young, witty and talented artist Frida Kahlo. He was twenty years older than her, ugly, but charming. Frida was passionately in love with him. In 1929 they got married.

"Henry Ford Hospital", 1932

Thursday, May 30, 2017

Frida dreamed of having children, but the injuries sustained as a result of the accident deprived her of the happiness of motherhood. Kahlo wrote this picture after another miscarriage. Blood, a single hospital bed, anguish on her face, and six images linked by arteries are the causes of her suffering.

"Friendly Embrace of the Universe, the Earth (Mexico). Me, Diego and Señor Jolotl", 1949

Thursday, May 30, 2017

Frida believed that Diego was her child, who was given to her by the Universe. Sometimes she portrays him in this role.

"Just a few scratches", 1935

Thursday, May 30, 2017

The picture that Frida wrote after learning about another affair of her husband, Diego Rivera, this time with her younger, beloved sister. Even before Kahlo's wedding, it was known that Diego was not faithful to his first two wives. She sincerely hoped that he would change with her. But these hopes were quickly dispelled by her husband's constant intrigues with various women, about which he did not even hide. But Diego's relationship with her sister was a deafening blow for Frida, comparable to death. The betrayal of two beloved people, which she could not bear and forgive. So this picture appeared, in which cruelty, death, a cold-blooded man with a knife are visible. Birds symbolizing the light and dark sides of love and holding a ribbon that says "Just a few scratches". Frida read this phrase from a newspaper article, which was said in court by a man who stabbed his unfaithful mistress. The artist "blood stained" even the frame and pierced it several times with a knife.

"Frida between curtains", 1937

Thursday, May 30, 2017

Frida presented this self-portrait to Leon Trotsky, signing "with love." In fact, the artist loved only one man - Diego, and intrigues with others (including women - Frida was bisexual) helped to forget the many adventures of her unfaithful husband. Leo Trotsky, who fled from Stalin's persecution to Mexico, together with his wife Natalya, stayed in Frida's blue house. The revolutionary immediately "lost his head" from the extravagant artist and ardent communist Kahlo. "With you, I feel like a seventeen-year-old boy, ”he wrote to her in one of his love letters. And Frida jokingly called him a hard-hitting little Spanish "goat", probably because of his sparse beard. Trotsky's wife put an end to their stormy romance. They quickly left the blue house of the Rivera couple, leaving also a self-portrait gift of Kahlo.

"Two Fridas", 1939

Thursday, May 30, 2017

The artist painted this canvas after her divorce from her husband. The facial expression is exactly the same - a calm, resolute look. But the heart ... One, the Mexican Frida, has a healthy heart, in the hands of a medallion (Frida before the divorce), and the other, the European Frida, has a torn heart, bleeding. Just surgical scissors clamping on an artery. save from total blood loss. Kahlo wants to emphasize the difference in outfits and internal state. that will no longer be the same, even the sky has lost its clarity and clouds have thickened. “With you I am unhappy, but without you there will be no happiness,” said the artist.

"Rama", 1937

Thursday, May 30, 2017

1939 is considered the heyday of Frida's career, her paintings are exhibited in Europe, her popularity is growing. André Breton, the founder of surrealism, organized an exhibition entitled "All Mexico", which featured handicrafts and the work of Frida Kahlo.
"Rama" is the first painting by the artist, which was acquired by the Louvre, and, probably, the most original, bright, emphasizing her Mexican origin and the extravagance of her nature.

July 6th marks the 108th birth anniversary of the most celebrated Mexican woman of the 20th century - Frida Kahlo / Frida Kahlo.

  • The famous Mexican artist Frida Kahlo, famous for her eccentricity and unique talent, was born in 1907 in the capital of Mexico. The girl's parents were a Jewish artist who moved from Germany, and a Spaniard born in America. Such an unusual combination of genes could not but affect the character of Magdalena Carmen Frida Kahlo i Calderon.
  • Unfortunately, very early, at the age of six, she was seriously ill with polio. The disease affected the development of the child, the girl's right leg stopped growing and subsequently became shorter and thinner than the left.
  • Twelve years later, another misfortune happened to the future artist - she gets into a car accident, during which the iron reinforcement of the tram pierces through her body, passes through her stomach and hip bone. What would be the result of the surgical treatment of the victim, the doctors could not immediately guess, because they identified a spinal injury in three places. The injury led to immobility, which for a long time chained the young girl to bed.

    Frida Kahlo bedridden


  • The tragic event still had a positive result, because inactivity quickly became unbearable for Kahlo - she took up the brush. At first, the girl painted self-portraits. A mirror was hung over her bed so that Frida could see herself in it.


  • After a while, Kahlo decides to study, she enters in 1929 at the National Institute of Mexico. Energetic, full of love for life, the Mexican woman did her best to start walking again. But, even having got rid of the cell-bed, having again felt the freedom of movement, Frida does not give up her favorite pastime - painting. She attends classes at an art school, improving her unique style.
  • In 1928, Kahlo joined the Communist Party, and soon her work was highly appreciated by Diego Rivera, a well-known communist artist in Latin America. The acquaintance continued, and the talented couple became husband and wife.

  • There was a passionate, expressive relationship between Diego and Frida, fanned by a halo of romance. The couple loved life, always had an active life position, were at the center of public life. Even Diego's numerous betrayals could not change the attitude of his wife in love towards him.
  • The spinal injuries experienced did not go unnoticed, Frida often experienced severe and excruciating pain. But this did not prevent her from actively communicating with people, having fun, attracting the attention of many men. Periodically, she had to go to the hospital to slightly improve her condition. Also, wearing a special corset made life very difficult; Frida rarely parted with him. And in 1952, unfortunately, due to complications, she had to amputate her leg, up to the knee.

    Frida Kahlo on the cover of Vogue magazine (1937)


  • But health problems did not become a reason to quit painting. On the contrary, in 1953, Frida Kahlo offered her first solo exhibition to the attention of connoisseurs of painting. Her paintings, mostly self-portraits, have allowed many to see the unique beauty of the artist. Even though there was no smile on her face, it attracts, makes you stop and slowly consider every feature.
  • Another passion of the famous artist is the story of her beloved Mexico. She, like her husband Diego Rivera, collected various monuments of culture and art. The collected exhibits are currently stored in the Blue House.


  • The bright life of an eccentric artist, unfortunately, ended prematurely. When Frida was only 47 years old, she fell ill with pneumonia. The weakened body could not endure this disease, and Frida died at such a young age. This was a great loss for Mexico, for fans of Kahlo's talent all over the world. It is worth noting that the artist's funeral was attended not only by her friends, but also by many famous writers, artists, the President of Mexico, Lazaro Cardenas.


The life of Frida Kahlo in the artist's diary

In the last year of her life, Frida Kahlo kept a diary, which will be very interesting to see for those who study her biography and work. On the pages of her diary, she wrote down her thoughts, made sketches, collages. The name that appears most often in records is Diego. The artist loved her husband very much, she considered him both a lover, a brother, a child, a colleague in creativity, and a mentor. Numerous diary entries are addressed to Diego, which consists of 170 written pages. You can read in it the memories of childhood, and her painful complaints about the disease and all the difficulties that are associated with it. Frank notes Kahlo led 10 years, but they can illustrate her whole life.

Frida Kahlo working with a Mexican boy


Features of the work of Frida Kahlo and its connection with the culture of Mexico

The main stylistic direction of Kahlo's paintings is surrealism, which is also filled with colorful Mexican motifs. This is how Andre Breton, the founder of the surrealist school, defined the Mexican style. But Frida herself was very negative about such an assessment of her work, as well as those who considered themselves surrealists. She considered everything depicted on her canvases an illustration of real, real life.

The work of Kahlo was highly appreciated by famous artists not only in Latin America, but also in the USA and Europe. Frida's works were exhibited not only at home, but also in Paris. True, the exhibition was poorly organized. When, at the invitation of Andre Breton, Frida came to her exhibition in the French capital, it turned out that the paintings were still at customs. And before the audience, they appeared only six weeks later. But that didn't stop the artist from getting a lot of amazing reviews. Moreover, one of the paintings was added to its collection by the magnificent Louvre, and this says a lot.


If Frida Kahlo carefully fenced herself off from surrealism, then she never hid the influence of Mexican folk art on her works. In her paintings, this influence is manifested very subtly and exquisitely. It can be seen that Frida loves her homeland, its history and culture. She wore national costumes with pleasure, this can be seen even in numerous portraits. Often in the paintings you can see various symbols characteristic of Mexican applied art. The ancient Indian mythology, national traditions affected the creativity. But, against the background of such characteristic Mexican motifs, the paintings also illustrate the influence of painting by European artists. The combination of different schools and traditions, multiplied by complex life milestones, expressive character and became the basis of a unique style.


Paintings by Frida Kahlo

The list of paintings by the Mexican artist is very large. Many of the works are unique self-portraits that Frida began to paint while still immobile after a terrible car accident. In her portraits, Kahlo is often depicted in national Mexican costumes. Many works are known all over the world, they were repeatedly exhibited during the life of Kahlo, and after her death. These paintings include the unique canvas “Two Fridas”, “Little Doe”, “Broken Column”, “Self-Portrait. Loose hair. Also in the list of achievements of creativity:

  1. "Moses" (1945)
  2. "My Dress Is There or New York" (1933)
  3. "Fruits of the Earth" (1938)
  4. "The Suicide of Dorothy Hale" (1939)
  5. "What the Water Gave Me" (1947)
  6. "Self-portrait" (1930)
  7. "Bus" (1927)
  8. "The Girl in the Mask of Death" (1938)
  9. "Dream" (1940)
  10. "Still Life" (1942)
  11. "Mask" (1945)
  12. "Self-portrait" (1948)
  13. "1945 Magnolia" and many others.

Frida Kahlo painting a portrait


The latest work, the still life "Viva la vida" (translated as "Long live life!") perfectly shows the attitude to the world around this amazing woman, whose path was very difficult and painful.
Some of Kahlo's paintings need not only be viewed, but even unraveled. This is a complex painting, attractive and bewitching. You can see Kahlo's paintings in museums in Mexico and other countries, as well as in private collections.

Frida Kahlo House Museum

An interesting, fascinating museum has been organized in the house where the famous artist was born. The building itself was erected a few years before the birth of Frida in Coyocan (a suburb of Mexico City). The architecture of the building is designed in the national Mexican traditions. This, after the organization of the museum, became a great advantage and brought a certain color to the exposition. During their lifetime, Frida and her husband significantly improved both the exterior and the interior. They decorated the room in the traditional Indian style, painted it blue. The furnishings of the house have been preserved as they were under the artist.


The memory of the artist

The life of a unique Mexican woman inspired many film workers and musicians to create works of art dedicated to Frida.

  • The film "Frida" (2002). The role of the artist was played by another famous representative of Mexico, Salma Hayek.
  • The film "Frida against the backdrop of Frida" (2005). Non-fiction art tape.
  • Documentary film The Life and Times of Frida Kahlo (2005).
  • Short film Frida Kahlo (1971).
  • "The Life and Death of Frida Kahlo" (1976).

In 1994, a famous jazz flutist from the USA released an entire album dedicated to the artist, Suite for Frida Kahlo. And in 2007, an asteroid was named after the artist.


The image and style of Frida Kahlo:




Salma Hayek in the movie "Frida" photo


Other photos of Frida Kahlo













Frida Kahlo with her favorite monkey


Frida Kahlo de Rivera (07/06/1907, Mexico City, Mexico - 07/13/1954, Mexico City, Mexico) - full name Magdalena Carmen Frida Kahlo Calderon is a Mexican artist best known for her self-portraits.

Biography of Frida Kahlo.

Frida Kahlo was born into a large family of photographer, Guillermo Kahlo, with German roots. Her mother, Matilda Calderon, was a Mexican of Indian origin. At the age of 6, Frida falls ill with polio, after which there is a complication in the form of lameness for life.
In 1922, Frida entered one of the best Mexican schools called "Preparatory", where she studied medicine. At this school, she met her future husband, the already famous artist Diego Rivera.
In September 1925, an accident occurred that divided Frida Kahlo's life into "before" and "after": the bus the artist was traveling on collided with a tram. In this disaster, young Frida receives many severe injuries: a triple fracture of the spine, a fracture of the collarbone, several broken ribs, a fracture of the pelvis, a crushed right leg and foot. In that number, she received stab wounds with metal railings in the stomach. Frida underwent many operations, after which she lay in hospitals for months.
From this moment, her formation as an artist begins: being bedridden, Frida asks her father to give her brushes, paints and canvases. A stretcher was built on the bed so that one could write lying down, and a mirror was hung over the bed. So Frida became her own model and subject of study. Her first work was a self-portrait. Subsequently, Frida Kahlo only worked in this direction.
At the age of 21, Frida Kahlo joins the Mexican Communist Party. A year later, Diego Rivera proposes to the artist, and soon marries her. Despite the big difference in age, they were brought together by common interests in art, and common political views. In 1930, Diego received an invitation to work in the United States, to which he agreed, and Frida followed her husband to America for a long 4 years, where she began to keenly feel her Mexican roots, a special love for Mexican folk art and national costumes, which she began to wear everywhere.
In 1937, already in Mexico, Frida and Diego give shelter and asylum in their house to Leon Trotsky, who was expelled from the Soviet Union.
In 1939, Frida takes part in the Mexican exhibition in Paris, where she immediately becomes the center of attention, and the Louvre acquires her painting.
In the 1940s, the work of Frida Kahlo took part in many significant exhibitions. During this period, the artist's state of health worsened, and the prescribed treatment, which was designed to relieve pain, caused strong changes in mental and psychological terms.
In 1953, a personal exhibition of the artist was held, to which Frida arrived in a hospital bed, since at that time she could no longer walk. And after this event, an operation followed: gangrene began on the right leg, and it had to be amputated almost to the knee.
On July 13, 1954, Frida Kahlo died of pneumonia. There is much controversy over the cause of death, as no post-mortem autopsy was performed. There is an assumption that the death of a Mexican artist from life is associated with a drug overdose. The farewell ceremony with Frida was held at the Palace of Fine Arts, which was attended even by the President of Mexico, Lazaro Cardenas.
In 1955, the house in Coyoacan where Frida lived, the "Blue House", acquired the status of a museum.

For most of us, Frida Kahlo is not a discovery, many have watched the film-biography "Frida", others have seen the paintings, read the biography by Hayden Herrera, etc. But I think it would not be superfluous to mention this brightest woman again ...

Yes, and you must admit, it is not so easy to single out women who have achieved significant success in the field of art. At one time, even Schopenhauer wrote that the greatest works of art were created by men (well, it seems like women have a different purpose!).
So, Frida Kahlo for me is an example of non-female fortitude of character, willpower, ardent disposition, combined with absolutely original beauty, seductiveness and tragic fate ... which is directly reflected in her paintings, which I would like to dwell on in more detail.


I will not focus on the love affairs of Frida and Diego, although this may seem the most interesting to many ... I will only touch on the facts and events that help to understand the essence of some of her paintings and the achievements of the artist.

As you know, Frida Kahlo was born in 1907, in Mexico, Coyoacan. At the age of 6, she fell ill with polio, after which she remained lame for life, and her right foot stopped growing. When Frida was 18 years old, she got into a bad accident, having received a fracture of the spine, a fracture of the collarbone, broken ribs, a broken pelvis, 11 fractures in the right leg, a crushed and dislocated right foot, a dislocated shoulder. In addition, the abdomen and uterus were pierced with a metal railing. The year she was chained to bed, and health problems accompanied her all her life. After this tragedy, for the first time, she asked her father for brushes and paints. A special stretcher was made for Frida, which allowed her to write lying down, a large mirror was attached to the bed so that she could see herself. The first picture was a self-portrait, which forever determined the main direction of creativity: “ I write myself because I spend a lot of time alone and because I myself am the subject that I know best».

Self-portraits of Frida Kahlo helped her to form an idea of ​​herself, to find a way to self-knowledge. The artist's face is almost always likened to a mask, does not show feelings and mood. Her works should be considered as metaphorical summaries of concrete experiences. She draws techniques from Mexican folk art, pre-Columbian culture, and local retablos.

In 1928 she shows her work. The pictures made a big impression on him: They conveyed a life-filled sensuality, which was complemented by a merciless, but very sensitive, ability to observe. It was obvious to me that this girl was a born artist.».

And the next year they got married. Diego received work orders in the USA, where they spent a total of 4 years, and Frida suffered several unsuccessful pregnancies.

After her second miscarriage, she paints a picture "Henry Ford Hospital", 1932.


We see Frida lying in a hospital bed. The white sheet is covered in blood. Above her belly, still round from pregnancy, she holds three red ribbons like arteries. The end of the first ribbon turns into an umbilical cord, which leads to the fetus, this is a child lost in a miscarriage. A snail hovers over the head of the bed. This is a symbol of the slow course of a failed pregnancy. The pink anatomical model of the lower torso above the foot of the bed, as well as the bone model at the lower right, indicate the cause of the miscarriage - the spine and pelvis damaged in the accident. The device at the bottom left may symbolize her own "unfit" muscles, which did not allow her to keep the child in the womb. The purple orchid, depicted in the center under the bed, was brought to Frieda by Diego in the hospital.
Although the motives of the painting are depicted carefully and in detail, the composition as a whole avoids realistic lifelikeness. Items are removed from their normal environment and included in new combinations. For Frida, it turns out to be much more important to reproduce an emotional state than to capture a real situation with photographic accuracy. She portrayed reality not as she saw it, but as she felt it.

AT "Self-portrait on the border between Mexico and the United States", 1932 Frida expressed her views and thoughts of that period, her attitude towards America, showed her isolation from her homeland.


She stands like a statue on a pedestal, on the border between two different worlds. On the left side is a landscape of ancient Mexico, where the forces of nature and natural life cycles rule. On the right we see the landscape of North America, where technology reigns. Frida holds a Mexican flag in one hand and a cigarette in the other. Clouds in the Mexican sky echo the puffs of smoke billowing from the chimneys of Ford factories, and lush vegetation on the left gives way to patterns of electrical equipment on the right, whose wires turn into roots that suck energy from the earth. And Frida is torn between these two opposites.

When she and Diego returned to Mexico the following year, Frida was ready to throw herself into painting, but health problems forced her to end up in the hospital again, and another year later she had to terminate another pregnancy.

In 1938, Frida went to the USA to train his exhibition organized by André Breton, at the Julien Levy Gallery. Despite the economic depression that gripped the United States, half of the exhibited works were sold. Claire Booth Lewis, publisher of Vanity Fair magazine, commissioned a portrait from Frida of her friend, actress Dorothy Hale, who jumped out of her apartment window shortly before the opening of the exhibition.

Like time-lapse photography, Frida captures the different stages of the fall, and the body itself is placed below in the foreground. The inscription at the bottom, in blood-red letters, tells the story of the event. When Claire Booth Lewis received the painting, she wanted to destroy it. " I will always remember the shock I felt when I pulled the painting out of the drawer. I got really physically sick. What was I supposed to do with this disgusting image of my friend's smashed body? I would not order to depict even a sworn enemy so bloody, and even more so my unfortunate girlfriend».

The following year, André Breton decided to arrange exhibition of works Frida in Paris, with Marcel Duchamp helping with the organization. The exhibition was held in the well-known Renou and Collet Gallery, but under the approaching threat of war, it was not financially successful. Because of this, Frida canceled her next exhibition at the Guggenheim Gallery in London. Still a Frida Kahlo painting Self-portrait "Rama", 1937 became the first work of a Mexican artist of the twentieth century, acquiredthe Louvre .

In the same year, Frida and Diego divorced, she reproduces her experiences in a self-portrait " Two Fridas", 1939 composed of two different individuals.


That part of her being that Diego Rivera respected and loved, the Mexican Frida in a Tehuan dress, is holding a medallion with a portrait of her husband as a child. Sitting next to her is her alter ego, the European Frida in a lacy white dress. The hearts of two women are on display, with only one thin artery connecting them. With the loss of her lover, the European Frida lost a part of herself. Blood drips from a freshly cut artery, held in place only by a surgical clamp. There is a danger that the rejected Frida may bleed to death.

During this period, Frida threw herself into work. She tried to provide for her own life by painting. In the following years, a number of self-portraits appeared, differing only in attributes, background, colors, through which the mood is expressed.

In 1940, she remarries Diego Rivera.

Since 1943, Frida began teaching at the School of Painting and Sculpture, but a few months later, due to poor health, Frida was forced to teach at home. She had to wear the steel corset that appears in her self-portrait" Broken column", 1944.

The straps of the corset seem to be the only thing that keeps the parts of the body cracked in half in an upright position. The Ionic column, broken into several pieces, takes the place of the damaged spine. The lifeless cracked landscape echoes the gaping crack in the body, which becomes a symbol of her pain and loneliness. Nails stuck in the face and body appeal to the images of the martyrdom of St. Sebastian pierced by arrows. The white cloth wrapped around the hips echoes the Shroud of Christ. She borrows elements of Christian iconography to give a particularly dramatic expression to her pain and suffering.

In 1946, Frida underwent surgery on her back, in the same year she received the state. Prize from the Ministry of Education for the painting " Moses, or the Core of Creation", 1945.


In the late 1940s came serious deterioration Frida's health. In 1950, she spent nine months in the hospital, suffered seven operations on the spine. After 1951, she experienced such unbearable pain that she could no longer work without painkillers. Her painting begins to be characterized by weak, hasty, almost careless brush work, which is the result of taking strong drugs. The desire of the artist to include a political dimension in her work in order to “serve the Party” and “benefit the Revolution” becomes especially clear in the paintings of 1954 " Marxism will give health to the sick", "Frida and Stalin" and in an unfinished portrait of Stalin.

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