Inspiration from Frida Kahlo
This Passionate Artist & Lover Was More Than Diego Rivera's Wife
Feb 1, 2008
Frida Kahlo may have been a feminist before her time. Indeed, she inspires many feminists today to live fully, express themselves openly, and pursue their dreams.
Frida Kahlo's life spanned from July 6, 1907 to July 13, 1954. She was truly an inspirational woman in history.
Frida Kahlo followed her heart
"…I paint because I need to."
Frida was an artist – some say Mexico's greatest artist – who didn't bother waxing or plucking her bushy unibrow and moustache; she painted them right into her self-portraits. Kahlo subtracted three years from her birthday and claimed 1910 as her birth year. Whether she did this to make herself younger or associate herself with the Mexican Revolution (which started in 1910) is still debated.
Frida Kahlo's personality traits
According to one biographer, Frida Kahlo swore all the time. She drank tequila and smoked heavily. She sang loud songs and told off-color jokes at the wild parties she hosted; she was a vibrant extrovert who was sexually liberated. "She is a devil," her father told her future husband. "I know," said Diego Rivera. Frida's first male love interest was Alejandro, the leader of a gang at her school.
Frida Kahlo became a feminist cult figure towards the end of the 20th century, particularly because her intense paintings were dominated by female themes.
Pain was a huge part of her existence.
Frida Kahlo’s bus accident
When she was 28 the bus she was on crashed into a trolley car. She suffered a broken spinal column, broken collarbone, broken ribs, broken pelvis, fractures in her right leg, a crushed and dislocated right foot, and a dislocated shoulder. Extreme relapses of pain plagued her for the rest of her life; doctors operated on her back, right leg and foot over 30 times. This didn't stop Kahlo from living out loud – just like her childhood bout of polio didn't stop her from boxing and participating in other "manly" sports.
Kahlo’s accident and turbulent childhood (the Revolution brought gunfire to her neighborhood and revolutionaries to her table) were major themes of her paintings, which are sometimes classified as surrealist. They were intensely personal, graphic, and sometimes gory – and often full of internal angst and external suffering. In her self-portraits she painted necklaces of thorns, steel columns along her body, and skulls on her forehead.
Almost half of Frida Kahlo's paintings were self-portraits: stark, bold, colorful, and symbolic of her physical and psychological wounds.
Frida Kahlo and Diego Rivera
Frida married Diego Rivera in 1932. He was 20 years older; their marriage was marked by numerous affairs on both sides. She didn't hide her bisexuality (Rivera was reportedly excited by it, but jealous of her affairs with men such as Trotsky and Noguchi). Diego slept with her younger sister, Cristina, which may have precipitated their first divorce in 1939. Diego Rivera and Frida Kahlp remarried in 1940, and divorced again. They never had children – Frida suffered miscarriages and an abortion for medical reasons.
Kahlo was obsessive, passionate, despairing, and brutally honest. She danced – she loved crowds – and she flirted with and seduced both men and women. Her lust for life was evident in everything she did. Kahlo delighted in gossip, dirty jokes, and pets like spider monkeys. She treated children like adults, servants like family, and students like colleagues.
Frida Kahlo didn't care what people thought.
Frida Kahlo's death
Frida died in the house she was born. She was ill for a year, her right leg was amputated due to gangrene, and the official cause of death was a pulmonary embolism or pneumonia. However, an autopsy and her previous suicide attempts convinced some people that Frida Kahlo killed herself.
“I hope the exit is joyful; and I hope never to return,” said Frida Kahlo.
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