Frida Kahlo Biography

Frida Kahlo, born July 6, 1907 in Coyoacan, Mexico, defines herself as a woman and an artist by pursuing her passions and making her career a priority in a time when women were supposed to be submissive to men and focus solely on pleasing their husbands. Though Frida loved her husband Diego Rivera very much, she had the courage to branch out from what was considered normal at the time, and focus on herself and what she wanted out of her short life. She quickly rose to fame with her paintings because she had the extraordinary ability to capture not only the beauty and rich culture of Mexico, but also the pain of reality. The combination of bright, bold colors and dark realism in her painting quickly set her apart not just as a female artist, …show more content…
When she was nineteen years old, she was she was in a bus accident that crippled her for life. Both her spinal column and pelvis were broken in three places, and she was skewered by a metal handrail that entered through her hip, preventing her from ever having children. The doctors did not expect her to live, and it was during the time after this accident when she was bed-ridden that she began to paint. Painting not only passed the time, but it also became an emotional outlet for her. In 1929, only four years after her accident, Frida married Diego Rivera. Diego was very large and much older than Frida, but she loved and admired him. However, he frequently had affairs with other women, including Frida's sister. This caused Frida as much pain as the accident, and though she had numerous affairs too, Diego’s affairs drastically increased the severity of her depression, and the two were divorced in 1939. The emotional effect of Diego’s unfaithfulness and their divorce is seen in Frida Kahlo’s painting The Two Fridas. The painting is symbolic of the Frida before Diego, and the Frida after he left. In the painting, Frida is seen wearing formal European attire and holding hands with another Frida, who is wearing traditional Mexican clothing and holding a small picture of her husband, Diego. Frida Kahlo adds intensity by exposing the bleeding hearts of the two Fridas in the painting, and also by painting a stormy sky in the background. The Frida on the right, wearing the modern European attire, represents who she was prior to her marriage to Diego. She was more pure, and focused more on what she wanted as opposed to what Diego wanted her to be. Throughout their marriage, Frida began to explore traditional Mexican clothing because that is what pleased Diego. It is the Frida wearing Mexican clothes on the left that holds a locket with an image of Diego. This the Frida