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Frida Kahlo Biography

Artist

Frida Kahlo is one of Mexico's most famous artists and also something of a feminist icon, celebrated for her passionate indomitability in the face of life's trials. She's best known for her daring self-portraits depicting the suffering she experienced in her personal life. As a child Kahlo had polio; at the age of 18 she broke her right leg and pelvis in a horrific bus accident, leading to a lifetime of chronic pain. Partially immobile after the accident, Kahlo began painting in the late 1920s. She married famed muralist Diego Rivera in 1929 and together they travelled to the United States, staying in Detroit and New York City in the early 1930s. In the late 1930s Kahlo had exhibitions of her paintings in New York City and Paris and associated with some of the most famous painters in the world. Kahlo and Rivera were both known for their extramarital affairs (Kahlo supposedly was a lover of Leon Trotsky) and in 1940 they divorced for a short time before remarrying. During the '40s Kahlo gained international recognition for her colorful and sometimes gruesome paintings (as well as for her bold public persona), but she continued to have health problems. She died in 1954 just after her 47th birthday.

Extra credit: Kahlo was portrayed by actress Salma Hayek in the 2002 film Frida. She was also portrayed by Ofelia Medina in the 1984 film Frida, Naturaleza Viva.

Other famous artists include Jackson Pollock, Balthus and Dante Gabriel Rossetti.