A painter who turned her broken body into a canvas for identity, pain, and ferocious self-possession.
Magdalena Carmen Frida Kahlo y Calderón was born on July 6, 1907, in Coyoacán, Mexico. She contracted polio at six, leaving her right leg thinner than her left. At 18, a catastrophic bus accident shattered her spine, collarbone, ribs, pelvis, and right leg. During her months of recovery, she began to paint. Over her lifetime she created 143 paintings, 55 of them self-portraits, that examined her physical suffering, Mexican identity, gender, and the turbulent politics of the 20th century with unflinching directness. She was romantically linked to muralist Diego Rivera—they married twice—and was openly bisexual. Though celebrated by the Surrealists, she rejected the label: her work, she said, was not dreams but her reality. She died on July 13, 1954, at 47. Her home, La Casa Azul, is now one of Mexico's most visited museums.
“I paint myself because I am so often alone and because I am the subject I know best.”
“At the end of the day, we can endure much more than we think we can.”
Transformed personal suffering into a universal visual language of identity and resilience, and became the 20th century's most recognized symbol of female artistic power.
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