Frida khalo

Frida Kahlo

1907 - 1954 (Coyoacán, México)

[pic]Diego Rivera
[pic][pic][pic][pic][pic][pic]Magdalena Carmen Frida Kahlo Calderón was born in the district of Coyoacán, in the outskirts of Mexico on the 6th of July 1907. She was the third daughter of Guillermo Kahlo and Matilde Calderón. In 1913·Frida suffered of a poliomyelitis attack that affected her right leg. She initiated herstudies in the National Preparatory School in 1922. There she observed Diego Rivera painting his mural „La Creación“ (The Creation ). During that time, she was taking engraving classes with the teacher Fernando Fernandez.
In 1926 she had a terrible accident when travelling in a bus which was collided with a car. The result was breakage of the spine in three points, as well as collarbone, threeribs, the leg and the right foot. A tube crossed the hip to sex organs and triple fracture of pelvis prevented her from having children. That accident marked Frida Kahlo for the rest of her life, it was the spring of physical horrors and at many moments the origin of the tragedy reflected in her artistic work.
During the recuperation she began to paint her first works: the dark pictures of rigidand conventional forms. Later, already with Diego Rivera, she has perfected her pictorial technique.
She met again with Diego Rivera on the return from Russia in 1927 painting there the frescoes with the Secretariat of Education. Frida took her first pictures to him and the painter showed interest in the artist and her work; two years later they got married. Frida was 22 years and Diego was 43.Frida and Diego then lived in Cuernavaca while the artist made the mural of the Cortés Palace. At that time she underwent the first abortion.
Later the pair went to the United States. First they stayed in San Francisco and Detroit. Finally they settled in New York. There Frida made her work “My dress hanging there”, picture that foreruns the work full of symbols that continued later. Theinfluence of the ‚exvotos‘, the popular things, the religion and Mexican symbols had marked her work.
In 1934 Frida and Diego returned to Mexico and settled in the atelier of the AltaVista street constructed by Juan O'Gorman, in San Ángel. Frida underwent another abortion and had been operated her right foot; the process of disfigurement of her body was constant and that was reflected in theworks that she were making. Diego Rivera's romance with Frida's sister, Cristina Kahlo, caused that she sunk in a tremendous depression. Then she separated from Diego and single marched to New York.
Frida Kahlo returned to Mexico to continue her work in 1937 when Leon Trotsky and his wife Natalia arrived to Mexico; Frida went single to pick them up from the Port of Tampico. They settled in herhouse of Coyoacán, well-known like the “Casa Azul” (Blue House). That year was one of the most prolific for Frida Kahlo, producing works like “Mi nana y yo”(My Nanny and I), “El difunto Dimas”(The Deceased Dimas), “Mis abuelos, mis padres y yo”(My grandparents, my parents and I), as well as several self-portraits. Frida's problem with the alcohol became evident.
In 1938 André Breton arrived toMexico, with an prearranged glance to find the surrealism in this country, and finded Frida; immediately he circumscribed her as one part the essence of the surrealist movement and wrote an essay to her „a strip of silk around a pump”. This label of surrealism of the work of Frida Kahlo is one of the “mistakes” that have been continued between the massive public with respect to their classificationand understanding. It is enough to mention her own words: ”… they thought I was surrealist, but I was not. I never painted my dreams, I only painted my own reality.“
In the same year Frida Kahlo made her first individual exhibition in the Julien Levy Gallery in New York. She lived a romance with photographer Nicholas Muray. The following year Frida Kahlo travelled to Paris to be present at the...