Story, Dale                                                                                                                                 

6/25/14

FRIDA KAHLO

• July 6, 1907.  Frida Kahlo was born in her parents’ house (The Blue House) in Coyoacan (suburb of Mexico City) .  Her father was Hungarian.  Her mother was Spanish/Mexican Indian.
• 1910.  Mexican Revolution begins.  Frida would later declare her DOB as 1910, to coincide with the birth of the Mexican Revolution.
• 1913.  She contracts polio.
• 1922.  She enrolled in a pre-med program in one of Mexico’s most celebrated schools.
• 1925.  She was involved in a bus accident in Mexico City at the age of 18 and suffered numerous and substantial injuries to her spine, collarbone, ribs, and others.  An iron handrail pierced her abdomen and her uterus, affecting her ability to bear a child.  She spent three months in a full body cast and would have some 35 different operations.  At this point she turned to painting—initially laying flat in her bad.  Over one-third of her total paintings are self-portraits of pain and suffering.
• 1929.  She had begun communicating with the famed Mexican muralist Diego Rivera and marries him in 1929.  The marriage was very troubled.  Both had extramarital affairs.  Kahlo was bisexual.  Rivera was tolerant of her affairs with other women, but was jealous of those with men.  One of her affairs allegedly was with Leon Trotsky, and Rivera is said to have had an affair with Frida’s younger sister.  They divorced in November of 1939, but remarried in December, 1950.  The second marriage was no less volatile.
• Kahlo and Rivera were both active communists (more so Rivera than Kahlo?), most famously known for their alliance with Trotsky.  Mexico’s President Lazaro Cardenas had welcomed Trotsky to Mexico as an exile in the mid-1930s.  Trotsky lived some time with Frida and Diego in The Blue House.  In May of 1940, Trotsky survived an Stalinist attack (in which the Mexican painter and Stalinist David Alfaro Siqueiros participated).  He was killed in another attack by a Stalinist on August 20, 1940.  Frida’s last public appearance was in a Communist street protest.
• July 13, 1954.  Frida Kahlo died at the age of 47 after more health problems, including gangrene.  Her right leg had to be amputated at the knee.  The urn with her ashes is on display at The Blue House (now the Museo Frida Kahlo).
• Posthumous recognition.  Frida Kahlo was not well-know (other than as the wife of Diego Rivera) until the early-1980s.  Since that time, her fame has grown even more.  Her paintings now allegedly are more expensive than any other female artist.  Madonna is said to be one of her most avid collectors.  She has had operas, plays, and movies made about her.  Salma Hayek played Frida in the 2002 movie, Frida (Madonna had wanted the part).  Florence and the Machine wrote and performed the song What the Water Gave Me (named after Frida’s painting of the same name).  In 2007, the Palacio de Bellas Artes in Mexico hosted its largest exhibit ever—Kahlo’s first comprehensive exhibit in Mexico.  Books, a U.S. postage stamp, a Google logo, and Mexican currency have all been the subject of Frida Kahlo and her paintings.