Frida Kahlo
Mexico, 1907-54

Frida Kahlo was a Mexican artist who used personal experience as inspiration for her
work. At the age of 18, she was injured in a serious bus accident. Her spine was
fractured and many other bones were broken. Despite many operations, the
remaining 29 years of her life were filled with pain.

After her accident, Kahlo taught herself to paint, using an easel specially designed
for her to use in bed. When she was finally able to walk again, she brought three of
her paintings to show to the famous Mexican muralist Diego Rivera. They were
eventually married, but their marriage was unhappy. Kahlo portrayed Rivera and her
agonizing love for him as a recurring theme in her paintings.

Frida Kahlo's unique painting style shows the directness, frontal poses, and strange
space and scale of primitive Mexican art. Her work is most significant for its very
personal autobiographical content. She was called a Surrealist—a member of the
movement that took the dream world as its subject.

Always in the shadow of her husband's fame as a mural painter, Kahlo finally had her
first exhibition in 1953 at the Gallery of Contemporary Art in Mexico City. She had to
be carried to the opening on a hospital cart. Four months later, one of her legs
required amputation. She ordered a red velvet boot for her false leg and
embroidered it with a design of bells. Her death in 1954 ended her pain.