Autorretrato con traje de terciopelo, 1926

FRIDA

KAHLO

This is Frida's first self-portrait. It was painted as a gift for her student boyfriend, Alejandro

Gomez Arias, who had left her.

Frida Kahlo was born Magdalena Carmen Frieda Kahlo y Calderón on July 6 of 1907 in Coyoacán, Mexico.

1950 - 1954 Retrato de la Familia de Frida

Frida worked regularly on this family tree portrait during a long spell in the hospital in 1950 and continued to work on

it until her death in 1954. When her older sister Matilde died in 1951, she stopped work on this painting. The

painting remained unfinished at the time of her death.

1951 Retrato de Mi Padre

"I painted my father Wilhelm Kahlo, of Hungarian-German origin, artist-photographer

by profession, in character generous, intelligent and fine, valiant because he suffered for sixty

years with epilepsy, but never gave up working and fought against Hitler, with adoration. His

daughter Frida Kahlo".

Frida's mother was unable to breastfeed her because her sister

Cristina was born just eleven months after her.

Frida considered this to be one of her most powerful works and is another painting in her series to document

major events in her life.

1937 Mi Nana y Yo

Mis abuelos, mis padres y yo",

Guillermo Kahlo

Matilde Calderón

y González

This is the first of two family portraits in which Frida was tracing the history of her ancestry. She appears as a little girl in the courtyard of the Blue House in

Coyoacan, Mexico, where she was born.

1.913At the age of six she was stricken with polio, which left her with a limp. Her left leg looking thinner than the other. In childhood, she was nevertheless a fearless tomboy, and this made Frida her father's favorite.

Kahlo hid this deformity wearing long skirts.

1939 Las Dos Fridas 1932. Autorretrato en la frontera entre México y Estados Unidos

After being in America for nearly three years, Frida was growing

homesick for Mexico.

Shortly after her divorce from Diego Rivera, Frida completed this self-portrait of two

different personalities. Frida's diary says this painting had its origin in her memory of an

imaginary childhood friend. Later she admitted it records the emotions surrounding her

separation and martial crisis.

1922Frida was enrolled in the

Preparatoria, one of Mexico's premier schools,

where she was one of only 35 girls.

Kahlo joined a gang at the school and ¨fell in love with the leader,

Alejandro Gomez Arias.

During this period, Kahlo also witnessed violent armed struggles in

the streets of Mexico City as the Mexican Revolution.

1928 Retrato de Alejandro Gómez Arias The legend in the upper right corner of the painting reads: "Alex, with

affection I painted your portrait, that he is one of my comrades forever,

Frida Kahlo, 30 years later".

1926 El accidente ( Ex voto)

1925

In September of this year, Kahlo was riding in a bus when the vehicle collided with a trolley car.

She suffered serious injuries in the accident, including a brokenspinal column, a broken collarbone, broken ribs, a broken pelvis, eleven fractures in her left leg, a crushed and dislocated right foot and shoulder. An iron handrail impaled her abdomen, piercing her uterus, which seriously damaged her reproductive ability.

1944 La columna rota

In 1944 when Frida painted this self-portrait, her health had deteriorated to the point where she had to wear a

steel corset. The straps of the corset seem to be all that is holding the artist's broken body together and upright. An

Ionic column, broken in several places, symbolizes her damaged spine.

1925Though she recovered from her injuries and eventually

regained her ability to walk,

she was plagued by relapses

of extreme pain for the remainder of her life.

. She would undergo

as many as 35 operations in her life as a result

of the accident, mainly on her back and

her right leg and foot At the bottom she added an

inscription that reads: "Mr. and Mrs. Guillermo Kahlo and Matilde C. de Kahlo give thanks to Our Lady of Sorrows for saving their daughter Frida from the accident which took

place in 1925 on the corner of Cuahutemozin and Calzada de

Tlalpah."

1940 Retablo

After the accident, Kahlo turned her attention away from the study of medicine to begin a full-time painting career. The accident left her in a great deal of pain while she recovered in a full body cast; she painted to occupy her time during her temporary state of immobilization.

1929 l'autobus

1935 Unos Cuantos Piquetitos 1932 Henry Ford Hospital

Drawing on personal experiences including her troubled marriage, her painful miscarriages, and her numerous operations, Kahlo's works are often characterized by their stark portrayals of pain.

On July 4th, 1932, Frida suffered a miscarriage in the Henry Ford Hospital in Detroit. In this

disturbing work, Kahlo paints herself lying on her back in a hospital bed after a miscarriage.

The figure in the painting is unclothed, the sheets beneath her are bloody, and a large tear

falls from her left eye.

A Few Small Nips1935 Broken-hearted over her husband's affair

with her younger sister Cristina, Frida recreated her sorrow and anger in this painting. Her own pain being too great to depict, she projected it

onto another woman's misfortune

Diego RiveraHe immediately recognized her talent and her unique expression of a new and uniquely Mexican aesthetic. He encouraged her development as an artist, and began an intimate relationship with Frida.

They were married in 1929, to the disapproval of Frida's mother. She was 22 year old and he 43.

1937, Retrato de Diego Rivera

At the time this portrait was painted Diego was 51 years

old. However, in this portrait he appears to be

much younger. Also, Diego was tall, heavy and larger

than life.

'I suffered two grave accidents in my life. One in which a streetcar knocked me down... The other accident is Diego.‘ F. K.

1943 Autorretrato como Tehuana Diego en mis pensamientos

Pensando en Diego

Frida's husband, Diego Rivera, continued to be an incorrigible

womanizer, and Frida's desire to possess him expressed itself in this portrait. Diego's miniature portrait

on her brow indicates Frida's obsessive love for the fresco

painter….he is constantly in her thoughts.

The couple eventually divorced, but remarried in 1940; their second marriage was as turbulent as the first.

1931 Frida y Diego Rivera

This folkloric style double-portrait may have been based on their wedding photograph. It was completed about two years after their marriage

while Frida and Diego were in San Francisco. The difference in height between the couple

is not exaggerated.

1937 Yo y Mi Muñeca

Due to the 1925 bus accident, Frida was unable to bear children and up to

this point had lost 3 children.

As substitutes for children she collected dolls and kept

many pets on which she bestowed her affection. In this self-portrait, Kahlo is

sitting on the bed with one of her dolls.

1949 El abrazo de amor del Universo, la tierra, yo, Diego y el sr. Xolot 

Kahlo was deeply influenced by indigenous Mexican culture

The subject of this painting contains many elements derived from ancient Mexican mythology. Frida's inability to bear children led her to adopt a maternal role towards Diego

1933 Alla cuelga mi vestido

After more than three years in America, Frida wanted desperately to return to her native Mexico. Diego, however, remained fascinated by the

country and his popularity and did not want to leave. Frida started this painting while still in New York and finished it after she

and Diego returned to Mexico.

Bonito 1940, Autorretrato con Bonito

Fifty-five of her 143 paintings are self-portraits

1938 Autorretrato con mono (Levy Gallery de New York

December 8th, 1940, while in San Francisco, Frida and Diego remarried. Shortly

thereafter, Frida received word that her father, Guillermo Kahlo, had died. Frida

returned to the family home in Coyoacán, Mexico, to live. Shortly after her return, she

painted this self- portrait. In it she is dressed in black to mourn the death of her

father.

1935 Autorretrato con Pelo Rizado

In the summer of 1934, Frida learned that Diego was having an

affair with her younger sister Cristina. She was emotionally devastated by the affair and separated from Diego. In this

painting, she portrays herself with short curly hair, most likely to

spite Diego who was very fond of her long flowing hair.

1938 Lo Que el Agua Me Dio

It is a symbolic work illustrating various events from the artist's life and

incorporates numerous elements from her other works as well as some that appeared in her later works. Frida gave the painting to her photographer lover Nickolas Muray in payment for a $400 debt she owed him.

1940 Autorretrato con Pelo Corto

This was Frida's first self-portrait after the divorce from her

husband Diego.

The verse of a song painted across the top of the portrait

points to the reason behind this act of self-mutilation:

"See, if I loved you, it was for your hair, now you're bald, I don't love you any more.".

After the divorce, Frida decided to renounce the feminine image demanded of her. She cut off her

hair, gave up her Tehuana costumes so like by Diego and wore instead a man's suit. The

only feminine attribute she retained was her earrings.

Active communist sympathizers, Kahlo and Rivera befriended Leon Trotsky as he sought political sanctuary from Joseph Stalin´s regime in the the Soviet Union.

1937 Autorretrato (Dedicado A Leon Trotsky)

This painting is sometimes referred to as "Between the Curtains". It is a self-portrait that Frida painted as a gift to Leon Trotsky on his birthday. The paper she is holding dedicates

the portrait to Leon: "To Leon Trotsky, with all my love, I dedicate this painting on 7th November 1937. Frida Kahlo in Saint Angel, Mexico".

The portrait is painted with warm and soft colors, and Frida looks beautiful,

seductive and self-confident.

1954 Frida Kahlo died on July

13, supposedly of a pulmonary embolism.

She had been ill throughout the

previous year and had a leg amputated owing to gangrene. However, an

autopsy was never performed.

1943 Pensando en la muerte

During this period, Frida's health had declined to the point where

she spent most of her days confined to bed. Because of her poor health, now and over the years, death was always on her mind as symbolized by the skull and crossbones that appear in

the circular window on her forehead.

A few days before her death she had written in her diary:

"I hope the exit is joyful; and I hope never to return."

1946 El árbol de la Esperanza

Frida painted this self-portrait for her patron, the engineer Eduardo Morillo Safa, after a

botched operation in New York.

She wrote to him about the painting and about the scars "which those surgeon sons of

bitches landed me with".

1940 El sueño La cama

The pre-Columbian urn holding her ashes is on display in her former home La Casa Azul (The Blue House) in Coyoacán, today a museum housing a number of her works of art.

This painting is sometimes referred to as "The Bed". In this painting, as well as others, Frida's preoccupation with death

is revealed. In real life Frida did have a papier-mâché skeleton (Juda) on the canopy of her bed. Diego called it

"Frida's lover" but Frida said it was just an amusing reminder of mortality

La casa azul

Museo Frida Kahlo

The Diego and Frida’s house

Museo Casa Estudio Diego Rivera. San Ángel

Juan O'Gorman

1929 Autorretrato Tiempo Vuela

This self-portrait was painted the year Frida and

Diego were married. It portrays the Frida that

Rivera loved.

El arete de Frida Autorretrato

1945 Sin Esperanza

Her doctor, Dr Eloesser, prescribed complete bed rest and a fattening diet. In this painting, the artist portrays what she considered to be a

"forced feeding" diet

In this painting of a young stag fatally wounded by arrows, Frida

expresses the disappointment which followed the operation on her spine in New York in 1946,

and which she had optimistically hoped would cure her of her

back pain.

1946 El Venado Herico

1947 El Sol y la Vida

Her obsession with fertility was often the subject of her paintings. In this painting,

the life-giving sun is surrounded by plants in the form of erupting male penises and

female wombs protecting a growing fetus. This painting also reveals Frida's sadness

over her infertility as shown by the weeping sun and fetus.

1949 Diego y yo

Frida painted this self-portrait during the period when her husband, Diego Rivera, was having a notorious affair

with the film star Maria Felix, a relationship which provoked a public

scandal. The beautiful film star was also an intimate friend of Frida's as well, and

though Frida pretended to joke about the affair, as she had about Rivera's

other escapades, this painting reveals her true emotions. Frida's obsession with Diego is symbolized by the small bust of him on her forehead…he being

the obvious source of the distress reflected in this painting.

1951 Autorretrato con el Retrato del Dr. Farill

This painting is a portrait of Frida with her surgeon Doctor Juan Farill. In 1951

Dr. Farill performed a series of 7 operations on

Frida's spine.

She remained in the hospital in Mexico City for 9 months. In November of that year Frida was finally

well enough to paint.

Her first painting was this self-portrait which she

dedicated to Dr. Farill. "I was sick for a year….seven

operations on my spine" she noted in her diary, and

"Dr. Farill saved me".

1954 Autorretrato con el Retrato de Diego en el Pecho y María

Entre las Cejas

After 1951, Frida was in such severe pain that she was no longer able to work without

taking painkillers....sometimes with alcohol. Her increasingly strong medication may be the reason for the looser, hastier,

almost careless brushwork, thicker application of paint

and less precise execution of detail which characterized her

late work.

1954 Viva la Vida, Sandias

In the last years of her life, Frida painted many still-lifes. Eight days before she died, she added a finishing touch to this, her

last painting, a still life.

One last time Frida dipped her brush into the red paint to inscribe her name and "Coyoacan 1954 Mexico" on the foremost slice. Then, in large capital letters, she wrote the motto whose force makes both her art and her legend live: "VIVA LA VIDA",

she wrote, "LONG LIVE LIFE".

Frida a los 16 añosFoto por Guillermo

Kahlo1924 Frida a los 20 años

Foto por Guillermo Kahlo1927

Frida a los 18 añosFoto por Guillermo

Kahlo1926

Photoalbum

Frida (primera fila a la izquierda)

y sus hermanas Matilde y Adriana, dos primas y un tío

1913

Retrato de la Família Kahlo: Frida Vestida de

HombreFoto por Guillermo Kahlo

1926

Frida y su hermana CristinaNueva York

Foto por Nickolas Muray1946

Frida y Diego en el Día de Su Boda,

21 de agosto de 1929Foto por Victor Reyes

Frida y DiegoCoyoacán, México

Foto por Nickolas Muray1938

Frida en Nueva York1933

Frida en Nueva YorkFoto por Lucienne Bloch

1933

Frida en Nueva YorkFoto por Julien Levy

Frida en San FranciscoFoto por Imogen

Cunningham1931

Frida Llevando un Corsé Decorado por Ella

Coyoacán, México - 1941

Frida en el Patio de la Casa Azul

Coyoacán, México -1950Foto por Florence Arquin

Frida Pintando"Autorretrato Como Tehuana"Foto por Bernard Silberstein

1943

Frida y Su Amante, el Fotógrafo Nickolas Muray

Foto por Nickolas Muray1941

Frida y Emmy Lou Packarden el Jardín de la Casa Azul

Foto por Diego - 1941

Frida y DiegoCoyoacán, México - 1954

Frida y Diegoen el Patio de la Casa AzulCoyoacán, México -1948

Frida y Diego en el Hospital ABCde México- 1950

Foto por Juan Guzman

Frida en Su Lecho de Muerte13 de julio de 1954Coyoacán, México

Foto por Lola Alvarez