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by Joseph C. Tardiff, L. Mpho
Mabunda
Frida Kahlo was a painter whose work
fascinated prominent and diverse artists around the world. The wife of
world-renowned Mexican muralist Diego Rivera, Kahlo forged a place in the
art world that was completely of her own. Her dramatic work consisted
primarily of self-portraits, although she did capture her family and
friends on canvas on occasion. Some critics contend that Kahlo's paintings
were reflections of her personal history, her relationship with Diego
Rivera; her damaged physical condition, her philosophy of nature and life,
and her individual and mythological worldview. Although Kahlo never had
formal training in art, she developed into an artist who fascinated wide
range of fellow artist, including Soviet filmmaker Sergei Eisenstein,
painter Pablo Picasso, and novelist Andre Breton. In addition to these
literary and artistic luminaries, her circle included political figures
such as Leon Trotsky and the Rockefeller family.
Frida Kahlo lived between 1907 and 1954 in a time of incredible worldwide
movements and changes. The Mexican Revolution occurred just three years
after she was born, a development that triggered dramatic social and
economic change in Mexico. A new sense of nationalism surged throughout
Mexico as the people rejected dictator Porfirio Diaz and his policies, and
a renaissance of cultural renewal glorifying Mexico's native roots took
place. The Mexican muralist tradition grew out of these changes and proved
to be an enduring method of expressing national pride. Kahlo was an active
participant in the social, economic and political landscape that
characterized that life. Frida Kahlo was born Magdalena Carmen Frieda
Kahlo y Calderon on July 6, 1907, in her parents' house in Coyoacan,
Mexico a suburb of Mexico City.
In about 1935 she dropped the "e" in her first name. Her father one of
Mexico's foremost photographers, was the son of Hungarian Jews from the
German town of Baden-Baden who emigrated to Mexico. Guillermo Kahlo
married her mother Matilde Calderon, a Mexican of Indian and Spanish
ancestry. The family home, called the Casa Azul ("Blue House"), was built
by Guillermo Kahlo a few years before Frida's birth. She was born, raised,
lived and died in her family's home. Kahlo's father had a profound
influence on her life. Her mother was a meticulous housekeeper and devout
catholic whose conventional patterns of thought created some distance
between her and her daughters. Kahlo's father, on the other hand,
recognized and encouraged her intellectual independence and curiosity.
At the age of seven, Kahlo was afflicted with polio, a disease that left
her right foot turned outward and stunted the growth of her entire right
leg. Her father nursed her back to health and subsequently encouraged her
to play various active sports not typical for a Mexican girl at that time.
Kahlo's bout with polio held her back in school, so in 1922, when she
entered the National preparatory School, she falsified her age. Some
historians have speculated that she chose 1910 as her birth date to
coincide with the year of the Mexican Revolution started. Kahlo was
adamant in her commitment to ideals of revolution. She expressed her bond
to the Mexican people in her art, in her dress, her behavior, and the
decorations of her home. During her days at the National Preparatory
School, Kahlo became known as something of a prankster and was a highly
visible presence. She often wore elaborate indigenous jewelry and colorful
native clothing, and was fond of piling her hair upon her head and
decorating brightly with ribbons and bows in the fashion that the natives
of Oaxaca, Mexico, favored Kahlo regarded every occasion as a cause for
rejoicing, and celebrated birthdays, baptisms, and all the popular
holidays with great enthusiasm.
It was at the National Preparatory School that she first met Diego Rivera,
an artist whose work she admired. Her attraction to the painter was
considerable, and one story from that period of her life alleged that she
declared to her school friends her ambition to have a child by Diego
Rivera. In 1925, however, Kahlo was involved in a tragic accident that
dramatically changed her life. Traveling home from school on a bus, the
vehicle collided with a trolley car, driving a piece of iron into her
pelvis an back. Kahlo struggled with the effects of this accident and the
pain it caused for the rest of her life. She underwent as many as 35
operations over the course of her life, most of them on her spine and her
polio-deformed right foot.
It was during Kahlo's convalescence from the bus accident that she began
painting. Kahlo was required to spend long periods of time flat on her
back in bed, so her mother bought her a special easel that she could use
despite her physical limitations. She began to express her explosive
feelings trough painting.
Kahlo never returned to school after her release
from the hospital. Instead, she concentrated on her painting. About this
time, she met the Italian-born American photographer Tina Modotti. It was
through her friendship with Modotti that Kahlo was introduced to an
exciting new sphere of art and leftist politics. Diego Rivera was a member
of this circle, and he and Kahlo soon became involved. Kahlo joined the
Young Communist league, an organization that Rivera founded and led the 22
year old Kahlo married the 42 year old Rivera in a a civil ceremony in
1929.
The marriage proved to be a tumultuous one. Kahlo lamented that she
suffered through two accidents in her life; one was the trolley car
incident, the other her marriage to Rivera. Both had extramarital affairs,
and several of Kahlo's relationships were with other women. Kahlo and
Rivera separated for a long time, divorced, and eventually remarried. All
during their stormy association, however, they served as the hub of an
international intellectual circle. Their political activism continued,
unaffected by the state of their marriage, as both Kahlo and Rivera used
their artistic talents to express their social and political views.
In 1938 Andre Brenton visited her in Mexico and remarked that she was a
surrealist. Kahlo disagreed, arguing that she painted her reality. She
did, however, travel to Europe and New York to show her work in a
surrealist exhibitions. Later, she firmly rejected the surrealist label,
contending that her work dissolved the distinctions between reality and
fantasy.
In the 1940s Kahlo taught art, her students became known as Los Fridos.
Although her students spent a lot of time with her at home, in her studio,
an out in the streets, they never saw her paint. She painted alone, a
practice that led some critics and friends to describe her paintings as a
form of therapy.
Kahlo's marriage to Rivera was but one of the difficulties she grappled
with during her adulthood. She suffered numerous miscarriages that caused
her great grief. In addition, the injuries suffered in the bus accident
continued to hound her, relegating her to her bed for months at a time and
keeping her in a state of almost constant pain. Finally, in 1953, her
right leg was amputated to gangrene. Throughout all of these difficulties,
Kahlo continued to paint. She became addicted to the medicine prescribed
for pain. Despite her failing body, Kahlo endeavored to maintain the old
ways of gaiety, excitement and drama.
Her last public appearance was at a demonstration protesting C.I.A.
intervention in the overthrow of leftist President Jacobo Arbenz of
Guatemala. She died seven days later on July 13, 1954, at the age of 47.
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