Frida Kahlo
autobiography
por T. A. C.
Frida Kahlo
autobiography
"I am not sick. I am broken.
But I am happy as long as I can paint."
Frida Kahlo
autobiography
Difficult life
Born 1907 Mexico City
Age 6 Polio & Limp
Tomboy
1922 Preparatoria
Meets Diego Rivera
teases, practical jokes,
jealousy of wife
Frida Kahlo
autobiography
1925 bus accident
collide with a tramcar
rod pierces her mid-section
leg & pelvis injured
never have children
paints first self-portrait
Frida Kahlo
autobiography
"I paint self-portraits because I
am the person I know best. I
paint my own reality. The only
thing I know is that I paint
because I need to, and I paint
whatever passes through my
head without any other
considerations."
Frida Kahlo
autobiography
'I suffered two grave accidents
in my life. One in which a
streetcar knocked me down...
The other accident is Diego.'
1928 Diego & Frida meet again
Diego divorced
much in common
politics – communist
militants
Marry 1929
Frida Kahlo
autobiography
55 of her 143 paintings are self-portraits
Husband - Diego Rivera, said:
"Frida is the only example in the
history of art of an artist who tore
open her chest and heart to
reveal the biological truth of her
feelings. The only woman who
has expressed in her work an art
of the feelings, functions, and
creative power of woman."
Frida Kahlo
autobiography
Travel to United States
Arm piece to Diego
Frida has miscarriage
Paints Miscarriage in
Detroit
Style – Mexican Folk Art – Retablos
Diego loves U.S.
Frida despises it
Frida Kahlo
autobiography
Diego said of Frida: “Frida
began work on a series of
masterpieces which had no
precedent in the history of art
- paintings which exalted the
feminine quality of truth,
reality, cruelty and suffering.
Never before had a woman
put such agonized poetry on
canvas as Frida did at this
time in Detroit.”
Frida Kahlo
autobiography
Return to Mexico
Diego with Cristina
Diego a notorious cheater
Frida cheats
men and women
Diego tolerates lesbianism
violent jealous of men
Frida Kahlo
autobiography
André Breton - Surrealist
arranges show
New York 1938
success – 12
paintings sold
1939 show in Paris
praise from Picasso
Frida Kahlo
autobiography
Surrealism & Frida
violent dislike for what she
called 'this bunch of
coocoo lunatic surrealists.'
Vehement denials: 'They thought
I was a Surrealist,' she said, 'but
I wasn't. I never painted dreams.
I painted my own reality.'
Frida Kahlo
autobiography
1940 Frida & Diego divorce
unknown reasons
1940 in U.S. Frida & Diego
remarry for her health
1944 health deteriorates
surgeries (for Diego?)
1950 1 year in a hospital
More famous still (1st in U.S)
Frida Kahlo
autobiography
1954 1st show in Mexico
too sick to attend?
sends bed
arrived by ambulance
carried in on stretcher
1954 loses a leg
blow to self-esteem
appearance!!!
Frida Kahlo
autobiography
1954 dies in her sleep
suicide?
Her last diary entry read: 'I
hope the end is joyful - and I
hope never to come back Frida.'"
physical and emotional pain
suffering on the canvas; a sort of therapy to survive
Frida Kahlo
autobiography
El Fin