Famous Artists in History by Halls Kelly Milner

Author:Halls, Kelly Milner
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Rockridge Press
Published: 2022-02-08T00:00:00+00:00

Frida

KAHLO

1907—1954

Frida Kahlo was a Mexican-born painter who created her own style of painting, inspired by symbolism, surrealism, and realism—the artistic style that tries to re-create exactly what the artist has seen. Her works, often self-portraits, are filled with vibrant colors and are sometimes joyful, sometimes heartbreaking.

Frida Kahlo was born in Mexico City, Mexico, in 1907. Her father, Carl Wilhelm Kahlo, was a German photographer who moved to Mexico and married Kahlo’s mother, Matilda. Kahlo was one of four daughters.

Polio struck Kahlo when she was only six. For nine months she was bedridden. Her right leg and foot were impacted by the disease, causing her to limp when she recovered. When kids teased her at school, Kahlo started wearing long skirts to mask her disability.

Kahlo continued to play soccer, wrestle, and swim with her father. They were very close. He encouraged her to push past life’s challenges, and she did.

When she was 15, Kahlo enrolled in the elite National Preparatory School in Mexico City. She was soon known for her passion for life and bravery in the face of any challenge.

Muralist Diego Rivera was hired by the school to paint his mural The Creation. Kahlo told her friends she would marry him someday. Before that happened, she was severely hurt in a bus accident.

For three months, Kahlo was in a body cast in bed. Her parents made a special easel so she could paint as she recovered. Kahlo soon found it would be her life’s work.

A year later, Kahlo painted her first of many self-portraits. When she reconnected with Rivera in 1928, she asked him to critique her paintings. He encouraged her work and married her a year later. They both expressed their emotions and political beliefs through their paintings.

Kahlo traveled with her husband all over the United States, wherever he painted murals. She admired his murals, so when he told her to include more Mexican folk art in her work, she listened. Soon her self-portraits began to evolve from realistic to surrealistic in style. In 1932, she painted Henry Ford Hospital.

In the colorful painting, Kahlo lies on a hospital bed as six objects float around her body, each one connected to her by thin red threads. All six objects reflect some aspect of her feelings of sadness and loss. Kahlo’s works are unique—like painted diaries.

“I PAINT SELF-PORTRAITS BECAUSE I

AM SO OFTEN ALONE, BECAUSE I AM

THE PERSON I KNOW BEST.”

In 1936, Kahlo painted My Grandparents, My Parents, and I. At the time, dictator Adolf Hitler was trying to take over all of Europe. Because he forbade interracial marriage, Kahlo protested through a painting. She painted portraits of her global ancestry. Kahlo painted herself as a small child in Mexico. Above her head, she painted her parents in their wedding clothes. And above her parents are her grandparents—one side German, the other side Spanish.

After her marriage to Diego Rivera ended in divorce in 1939, Kahlo painted Self-Portrait with Cropped Hair. Kahlo cut the long dark hair Rivera had loved. Some say it was a sign of grief.

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