Celebrating Artists – the iconic Frida Kahlo
July 6th marked 113 years since the birth of the Mexican artist, Frida Kahlo (born in 1907). But who exactly is this cultural icon, and why is she still being celebrated so widely today?
As one of Mexico’s most famous painters, Frida Kahlo brought bright and bold aspects of Mexican culture to a worldwide audience, influencing style and art for decades.
As well as being an icon in the art world, Kahlo is also celebrated amongst many minority groups for her independence, ambition against the odds and for carving the path to become an artist in her own right.
From a feminist perspective, her works challenged beliefs about feminine form and experience. Her paintings represent both internal and external feminine experiences, and broadened ideas of gender as she blurred boundaries and defied gender expectations.
Kahlo also represents power and strength in adversity. She suffered from polio as a child, and was left with life-altering injuries after a bus accident as a teenager which affected both her mobility, and ability to have children. She had 30 operations in her lifetime and lived most of her life in pain but persisted nonetheless – with her art giving her strength and an outlet of expression which helped her to cope.
She created hundreds of paintings and drawings, some of which depicted her bodily pain and the looming threat of death which she felt. She also explored themes of fertility, and painted representations of her turbulent relationship with her husband – the famous Mexican artist, Diego Rivera, whom she married twice. Many of her paintings, however, are bright and beautiful self-portraits, which blend Mexico’s culture and her style together in its most vivid form.
Kahlo was considered a Surrealist painter and exhibited some of her work (The Two Fridas, and The Wounded Table) at the ‘International Exhibition of Surrealism’ in 1940, in the Galeria de Arte Mexicano. However, she later rejected the Surrealist label, believing her work to be Realist, grounded in reality and about her own experiences: “I paint self-portraits because I am so often alone, I am the person I know best”.
Like many of the greats we celebrate today, Frida did not witness the extent of her fame during her lifetime. She sold few paintings and had just one solo exhibition in Mexico a year before her death at the age of 47 (on July 13, 1954).
Yet today she is a cultural icon and continues to inspire artists in various forms: painters, filmmakers, fashion designers, and much more. There are hundreds of books which document her life, as well as a film biopic, Frida, starring Salma Hayek. And she has even been given one of modern day’s highest accolades; “the mother of the selfie”.
Nadene, Fingal Libraries
Read more:
There are so many books about the life and works of Frida Kahlo (for both children and adults) available from your local branch, including:
Portrait of an Artist by Lucy Brownridge (child)
Frida Kahlo (Little Guides to Great Lives) by Isabel Thomas (child)
Frida Kahlo: 1907-1954 - Pain and Passion by Andrea Kettenmann (adult)
Frida Kahlo : the still lifes by Salomon Grimberg (adult)
Frida : a biography of Frida Kahlo by Hayden Herrera (adult) – highly recommended
Read on Borrowbox:
Forever Frida (A Celebration of the Life, Art, Loves, Words, and Style of Frida Kahlo) by Kathy Cano-Murillo (eBook):
